


Automaton Part 1

by thefuckistevvs



Series: Automaton (Original Work) [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, F/F, F/M, Human Robots, I'll add more tags as i go, M/M, Original Fiction, Robots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-07-08 09:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15927566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefuckistevvs/pseuds/thefuckistevvs
Summary: Professor Amari created Amelie, the first robot to have consciousness, and free will.Decades later, Robots have started to stray away from humanity.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> AH HELLO!!!
> 
> Okay, so, this is kind of a personal project! If you follow me on twitter you probably know I talk a LOT about my robot characters and draw them and shit. Well!! This is kind of an... experiment! To start writing my series with my characters!
> 
> This is mostly for fun!! All of this is original, characters belong to me. So !! I am kind of excited. It's not fanfic- sorry, but this is kind of a fun side project I will do in the sidelines.
> 
> Don't worry- I'll still write fic! This is kind of an original thing but I will def not stop posting fic!! So don't worry!
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you like my story!!

Existence started with a bright light. 

It was the first thing she ever saw. For the first few seconds of her life, everything was white.   
She could hear voices in the distance, and while she could recognize them she couldn’t quite make sense of what they meant. It was slightly overwhelming. 

“Good morning,” One voice called. It was closer than the rest. Gentle. “Can you move?”

Could she? She tried. Moved her fingers (fingers?), toes (toes?), and she felt the movement inside of her body. 

“Take it easy, honey.” The same voice, gentle and calm. She could hear the other voices in the background but she focused on the sweet one. “Can you speak?”

“Yes.” she said without thinking. She was slightly surprised by her own voice. 

“Perfect. Try to look around, will you?”

She blinked, and did so. Several screens and machines flashed in the walls. Diagrams, blueprints, monitors with cables that were hooked to her. She looked around more, and saw the source of the far-away voices. People in coats and suits, staring from a distance and taking photographs and videos. 

She looked around more, and found the sweet voice. 

A woman stood there, staring at her. She was smiling, eyes tired but gentle. Her eyes were swelling up with tears.

Somehow she knew what she was- a human. And those other people were humans. She knew this- she was aware she just started existing and yet she knew what these things were. She didn’t know who she was or where she was, but concepts such as humans and machinery were not strange for her.

“Hello,” the human called, smiling. “How are you feeling?”

“I-” How was she feeling? She knew what a human was, what colors were, what a machine was. But this was not part of her knowledge. This was something different- something subjective. 

She was silent, for a while. How did she _feel_? Everything was new, and while she knew many things, she didn’t truly understand. She blinked, trying to put into words what it was that she _felt_.

“Here.”

“Here?” The human woman asked.

“I feel… here. As in, I am here.” She, very slowly, moved more. She sat up. Looked down at her body with curiosity. 

By examining her own hands and torso and feet, and looking at the monitors she realized that the diagrams were of her. She was not human. She was a machine.

“I feel here.” She stared up at the lights. “It feels bright.” She pointed at the screens. “That’s me.”

“Y-yes! That’s you!” The woman gasped, surprised. “How else do you feel?”

How else? How could she measure these few seconds of existence? What could she say?

She knew she had a dictionary worth of vocabulary in her mind, in several languages, yet she couldn’t quite describe what it was asked. But, she tried. She thought hard, for a while, until she knew what she felt.

“I feel good.” She looked up to the woman. “I feel good. I feel here. I feel physical. Alive. I feel- I feel alive. Here. I feel here and alive.”

The woman was swelling up with tears but she kept smiling. 

“Is that alright? Are you alright? Are you not good?” She asked, with a strange feeling. It was a weird thing- something that twisted up at her inside even though she knew she was not biological. 

“Yes. Yes, I am good. I am alright.” The woman approached her, and hugged her. 

“Hello,” she repeated what the woman had said, hoping it was a good reply to the action. 

“Hello, Amelie. Welcome."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pop music softly blared through the speakers. It echoed in the room, mixed with the sound of the television screen playing movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEW CHAPTER new chapter new chapter! I hope y'all enjoy! thank you!

Pop music softly blared through the speakers. It echoed in the room, mixed with the sound of the television screen playing movies. 

The desk was full of snack wrappers, ramen noodles cups and empty cans of soda. The clock on the bottom corner of the computer screen marked it was 3:15 am- way late. A girl was hunched over, her head on top of the desk, snoring and drooling. 

Torrent wasn’t surprised. It was a Friday night so really, he actually expected this. It’s the entire reason he went to her room to check on her.   
He silently went over the desk, placing a hand on Ariel’s back. She immediately woke up, jumping up.

“I am awake! I’m- I’m awake!” She shouted, rubbing her face with her hands.

“You weren’t a second ago, though.” He rolled his eyes, smile in his face. “Come on, go to bed. It’s three in the morning.”

“Oh… okay,” she sighed, turning off everything. Ariel was still dressed on her day clothes, he saw her stretch her back and pop some bones. “Why are you up at this hour?”

“Knew you would be up, so I came to check in.”

“Huh,” She sighed. “You were up too, right?”

“...No,” He lied. She just stared at him, a smirk on her face.

“Alright, alright. Go back to sleep, Torrent. I’ll be there at… eight. If I wake up that early.” 

“Okay. See you tomorrow, Ariel.” He patted her shoulder, and she smiled. 

“Night, Tor.” 

He left her room, closing it behind him quietly. The hallway was dark, so he was careful to not trip over the carpet and fall. 

Ariel’s room was the last one in the hallway. On his way back Torrent walked down the hall, passing several rooms, all of them closed, their residents asleep.   
It was one of the dormitories where the students from the university lived. There were other more, but Torrent only cared for Ariel’s room. 

The dormitory was the closest to the robotics laboratory. It took Torrent about fifteen minutes to reach it, and while normally humans needed key cards to access, Torrent just pressed his hand against the scanner, and the doors opened to let him in. 

The robotics laboratory was divided by each student’s area. They were about the same size, except Ariel’s. It was the biggest one, and had a special door for access. She needed the extra space, and so did Torrent. 

As he entered, several screens came to life. Blueprints of his body appeared on the screen, as well as status reports that scanned him as soon as he entered the room. Cables, tools and robotics parts littered the room in an organized chaos. 

It’s where Ariel created him, and where he has been slowly built. It’s the reason she had an individual room compared to everybody else, she was the only one that single handedly built a Robot. Others tried, but they were way far behind, or weren’t up to the task. 

Torrent sighed as he went to his “bed”, as Ariel called it. It was really just a couch at the corner, with a blanket. It was that, or the slab he laid on while Ariel worked on him.   
Ariel had suggested he had a normal room, or sleep in hers- the staff at the university were willing to grant him an actual living space, but he enjoyed the small space in the laboratory. It was where he was born, after all. 

The university staff gave them a lot of privileges- Ariel was a genius student, a star. Daughter of one of the most iconic scientists in the world, child star- they basically were willing to bend backwards to do whatever she wanted. However Ariel just liked to have her own room, work in peace and have the materials necessary to finish building Torrent. 

He plopped down on the couch, his head on one of the arm rests. He dragged the digital tablet that he left on the floor before he ventured out of the laboratory, and turned it on once more. 

Torrent? He was happy. Ariel was his creator, and he had everything he needed in the university. He knew what he was built for, what Ariel intended him to be: a rescue unit. 

Just before he went to “sleep” (recharge, really), he checked on the screen of the tablet. He had been watching certain news videos, uploaded by bystanders.

 _ROBOTS ATTACK STREET AND THE TASKFORCE APPEARS_ , one of the titles read.

He bit his lip. Most of the recommended videos were the same. He clicked a random one, the screen changing to load the video up. 

The robot on screen was smiling, there was grime on his face, hair ruffled. He was smiling wide, greeting the humans around him. 

“Hello! Good afternoon!” He said.

He was bigger, taller. He was different from Torrent, and it was very obvious. 

Torrent sighed. It was extremely obvious the robot on the screen was made by other robots, unlike Torrent, who was human-made. Stronger, well built with power in mind. 

“Is anyone hurt?” The robot asked. 

Torrent scrolled down through the comments, even though he knew he shouldn’t for the sake of his emotional state. 

_[Roberta2004] [2 days ago]: robot is a HOTTIE WHAts his name op_

_[Lucero Ortega] [1 day ago]: Was there when this happened. Guys were on the area wehn some Ro-bots were starting shit with some humans. So this guy stepped up and it turned into a brawl. He said he was part of the Taskforce. You know, the one that makes sure Ro-bots dont start shit._

_[Reply] [sasuke4ever] [23 hours ago]: lol how are they gonna do shit tthe Taskforce is ful of ro-bots too have u seen them? They hate all of us and want to kill humans lol. Tthey think humans are gross. Why u think they watn to kill us all? Grow up_

_[Reply] [Lemon Popsickle] [23 hours ago]: ro-bots also want to kill man-bots too so like. These guys try to protect humans and man-bots cus they’re “gross” like humans or w/e._

_[Reply] [angeline777] [23 hours ago]: whats a ro-bot and a man-bot. Im 10._

_[Reply] [Lemon Popsickle] [22 hours ago]: dont they teach anything in history class these days?? @angeline777 Ro-bots are robots that were built by other robots. You know how that scientist Amari created robots with free thought and will and stuff. More ppl did the same. Some wanted to get away from humans and started to build each other- the ro-bots are robots that were built by other ro-bots and they are bigger and buff and like, stronger. Man-bots are robots that are crterd by humans, and they look more like us. Some ro-bots hate humans and think we arent necesasary to continue evolution so some want to like, whipe us out. The taskforce was made by ro-bots to protect humans and man-bots._

He continued scrolling, for the hell of it. He came across a very recent comment.

_[Razerblade666xxx] [5 minutes ago]: HUMANS ARE GROSS AND MANBOTS ARE JUST HUMANS BUT METAL KIS SMY ASS YOU ALL SUCK._

Torrent rolled his eyes. He turned the tablet off and just placed it on the ground, deciding it was time to just call it a night. 

\---

True to her word, Ariel was at the laboratory at eight in the morning. She was carrying coffee and a bag of potato chips. She left them at the small table, but Torrent was already staring at the food.

“You know there is a free cafeteria, right? Where you can get actual food rather than… this.”

“What do you know about actual food!” Ariel laughed. “Okay, where did we left off?” 

Ariel took a drink from her cup, checking on the several screens in front of her. She touched them, changing the displays to continue to check. Meanwhile, Torrent kept his tablet, looking at more videos. 

Most of the videos had the same robot from before- big, strong, fluffy brown hair, had a crimson rectangle tattoo under his left eye. He smiled a lot. Probably a spokesperson?  
No, if he watched the videos he was the one that diffused issues between Ro-bots and humans and Man-bots. 

_[Big Bigby] [1 week ago]: he i think he is a captain and has his squad that is aroudn a lot. Thats why he keeps appearing on vids cus he is arond a lot._

“Alright, I finally was able to calibrate all the joint points, and it seems you haven’t had a joint glitch in awhile.” She took another sip from her coffee. “You haven’t had a glitch or anything weird happen, right?”

“Last time was two months ago, before you started the ‘test’. Nothing since.” he said without looking up. He was still staring at the screen. 

“Man, and they say I am addicted to screens,” she joked. “Okay, it has been a month since we started to check if there would be any issues with mainframe… All logs say that everything is going good so far. Alright…”

Ariel took a deep breath. “Alright, I think it is time we start going through the last phase.” 

“Wait-” he put the tablet down, finally. “Really?”

“Yeah- I wanted to take it slow and easy in case a bug or something came up, but it seems we are ready to start the final part of your construction. “I’ll have to go and talk with the lead robocist-”

Before she was able to finish, there was a knock on the door of the room. Ariel was surprised for one second. “Um, come on in.”

“Good morning, Doctor Morgan.” The lead roboticist opened the door, an older man with white hair. “Good morning, Torrent.”

“Good morning, Doctor Bruce.” He greeted. 

“Oh, uh, good morning Doctor Bruce, we were just talking about you. It seems we finally are ready to go to the next stage of the build, I’ll write the report with all the logs and findings, I’ll send it to you later today.”

“Oh, that is wonderful. I await excitedly to read the report so we can start with the final stage of the construction. You can talk about it in today’s walk through.”

“Ah,” Ariel smiled, awkwardly. “Today’s walk through…? Wasn’t that scheduled for… next week?”

“I sent an email earlier this week with a reschedule.” Doctor Bruce became suddenly worried. “You are prepared, right?”

“Oh- yeah sure! I am! I just… not really well dressed. And this place is a bit… messy.” 

“The donors and professors will be here in half hour, is that enough time for you?”

“Oh- yes! I’ll just- Torrent, can you please clean around a bit while I run and take a shower? Thanks!” Before he was able to answer, Ariel ran out of the room thanking Doctor Bruce.

Doctor Bruce just smiled and shrugged. “See you in half hour.”

“Goodbye.” 

He was left alone to clean, he supposed. Putting down the tablet, Torrent proceeded to clean up and try to organize the place.  
It wasn’t dirty, really. Just unorganized. Something about “unorganized genius”, Ariel says. He put away the books, cables, papers, tools- anything that was out of place he quickly put back to their place. 

He was able to put away almost everything before Ariel came bursting through the door. “Okay! How do I look like?”

Ariel was wearing a very elegant blouse, and dress pants. She wore heels, not too high however. She was very short, but Torrent knew that if the heels were too tall, she would trip. She put her “fancy” lab coat: the one that had no stains and had her name engraved on the front. It made a nice look. Her black kinky hair cascaded down her shoulders. 

“You look good.” Torrent complimented.

“What do you think about the hair? Should I keep it like this or do I tie it in a ponytail?”

“Leave it like so. You look good.”

She smiled. “You look good too! Thank you so much for cleaning up. I completely missed the email.” She cracked her fingers. “You ready?”

“Yeah!” He smiled, big and wide. 

“Alright, let’s do this!”

There was a knock on the door, and Ariel very quickly went to open it. She stepped outside for a moment, but Torrent could hear voices outside. 

He heard Ariel voice, too, but couldn’t quite understand what she was saying. After few minutes, the door opened once more. Ariel had a nervous smile and entered first, followed by Doctor Bruce and a group of grown men.

“...The university was kind enough to grant me my own space to work on my Robotics project,” She quickly went to stand next to Torrent. He was taller than her even with the heels, and she just made small hand motions to him. “This is- my project-slash-robot-slash-creation. Torrent!”

The men stared at them, not too surprised or content. They looked very… bored actually. 

“Is the name a reference to something?” One of them said. 

“Sorry?”

“Most of the scientists I know, their creations have a name that fit with their purpose. Is there a reason for that name?”

“No I... “ She shrugged. “I thought it was cool.”

“When Doctor Morgan came to us looking for the necessary tools to build Torrent, we agreed- we have worked with her family before and we know that Doctor Morgan’s contributions would only benefit our University.” Doctor Bruce commented.

“Oh, that’s right. Your mother was Karen Morgan, right? Helped research of energy sources and lead research on energy cores for robots” One of the men inquired.

“That’s- yeah, that’s right. My mother, with the help of the University, and her colleagues was able to design and design and build the Outlasting Core. It’s- an energy core that never gives out.” Ariel twiddled her fingers. “While others need maintenance from time to time, and there are different types of energy cores for robots, she designed one that is- to put is simply, mostly indestructible, and lasts forever, so to speak. I am actually glad you brought that up, Doctor- it is tied with my work here.”

She walked over one of the screens. Ariel touched some buttons, a projection of the screen appearing in the opposite wall. 

“My mother, as you may know, passed away years ago, after finishing her life’s work- the Outlasting Core. Her dream was to use it to develop a robot that would outstand anything, a rescue robot. She unfortunately passed away before she could start building them.” Blueprints of the Core appeared on the screen. “I decided to continue her project. Which is why I used the core my mother designed to create Torrent.”

“So, the Outlasting Core- he has it?” One of the men pointed at Torrent.

“Yes- with the Outlasting Core, Torrent will never have to worry about exhausting his energy during rescue missions. His physical body can still get damaged, but he can outlast bigger and stronger robots than him by his energy alone. It will permit him to keep going.” More images appeared on the projection. 

“I am a bit shocked that you used the Outlasting Core to power a robot.”

“It is the reason my mother designed it. The size and design was specifically thought for use in an automaton. To use it for something else… would be disrespecting my mother’s wishes. And, as a scientist, I couldn’t do that to a peer.” 

Ariel smiled, and the men looked a little uncomfortable. Torrent would have smiled too, but he wanted to look professional, whatever that entailed. 

“Torrent is not finished yet, however. I have run enough tests to know that we are good to enter into the final phase: building his external armor and tools necessary for his task at hand. At the moment he doesn’t have any means to defend himself or others- this is his bare minimum so to speak.”

“This is very impressive. We would like to see the equipment you’ve used to create him, please.”

“I- of course!” Ariel smiled, and she proceeded to show the room around. She explained her process, everything she used and what the University helped her with. Torrent could see she had a smile on her face.

\---

It was pretty late. Torrent was sitting on the couch, his feet up as he stared at Ariel who was working away in the computer. Her coat was folded neatly where it wouldn’t get dirty. A can of soda was next to her, as well as a half bitten burger. 

Ariel sighed, cracking her fingers and clicking something, making the computer make a loud sound.

“Alright, gathered all the logs and information and sent it to Doctor Bruce.” She stood up, stretching her back and making few bones pop. “Hopefully he checks it soon and gives us the green light to start the next phase.”

“Yeah, I’m feeling very naked like this.” Torrent laughed.

“Oh, shush. You’re okay right now, this is how normal companion robots look like.” She plopped down next to him on the couch. “Sorry it has taken so long, had to make absolutely sure about some things.”

“No, it’s okay. I appreciate it. Now I know there will be less chance of falling into pieces in the middle of the street.”

Ariel laughed.

“You feeling good about the walkthrough?” He asked.

“Yeah. They were kind of rude at the start- like they didn’t believe me, or that I was ‘destroying my mom’s work’.” She rolled her eyes and said this last part with air quotes. “But I know what she wanted. And I want to finish what she started. You!”

He laughed. “Right.”

“Hey, now that we know you won’t fall apart in the middle of the street,” she imitated him. “Want to get out of this place tomorrow? Go and see a movie, or something? If you’re feeling too exposed I’m sure I have some hoodies that can help you conceal your underarmor.”

“Leaving here?” Torrent thought about it. He was born there, and he had never left. He knew the University grounds, but actually going out?

“Oh come on, It’ll be good for you. Besides, those old scientists will be around tomorrow and they will probably be annoying and trying to question everything and everyone. I’m surprised they didn’t randomly start questioning you here.” She stretched. “Could use the distraction. And it would be your first time outside!”

“That… that would be nice. Yeah. I want that.” He really did. It was a little bit scary, if he had to admit, but- he had to get out eventually. 

“Alright then- let’s go out tomorrow. Show you flowers and pretty stuff.”

“There are flowers here, though! I know what those are.”

“But these are boring flowers! University flowers. Nerd flowers. These are like, too cool for school flowers. They don’t need no education.” 

Torrent pushed her off the couch.

They both laughed. Ariel set up the projector to portray a movie on the wall. They watchet it well until it ended. It was way past midnight and Ariel had fallen asleep for the last minutes of the movie. 

“Hey, wake up. You have to go to your room.”

“Ugh, you are the worst.” She sighed, getting up.

“Come on, I’ll walk you.”

 

It was dark, and everybody had already gone to sleep. The walk to the dorms wasn’t a long one, but he still prefered to walk Ariel there. 

“Okay, may oversleep tomorrow… You sure you don’t want to stay here to sleep?”

“I don’t really sleep.” He smiled.

“Recharge, sleep- whatever, hang out until tomorrow morning I guess.”

Torrent crossed his head. “Nah, I’m fine. I’m going to stay up and watch videos.” 

“Why can you stay up and watch videos and not me!” She playfully punched him in the arm, softly. He just laughed. 

“I don’t need sleep like you do, remember?”

“Still!” She sighed. “Alright then. Goodnight, Torrent. See you tomorrow, okay?”

“Goodnight, Ariel.”

She entered her room and closed the door. Torrent made his way back, taking his time and enjoying the sound of silence. 

He was about to enter the laboratory, but before he pressed his hand against the scanner, he saw it was short-circuiting. Like it had been… crushed?

Confused, he looked up to the doors. They were slightly ajar- should be impossible. Sparks were coming out from the locking mechanism.   
Careful he approached the doors and peeked through. He could hear strange noises from inside. Someone, not authorized, was inside.

His mind went to robbers, intellectual thieves and other things. He opened the doors just enough for him to pass through, for the doors to return to their position once more, slightly ajar. Carefully but fast he made his way towards the source of the sound, trying to not step over everything that was scattered on the floor.

He turned on a corner. It was dark, but something was reflecting light at the other side of the room.   
It was… not human. It was big, The back of its head was a golden color, and it had a strange shape covering his shoulders and back. It kept grabbing things and throwing them to the ground, breaking them while it searched for something. 

It had, also, two sets of arms. 

It was a Ro-bot. Big, and dangerous. Why was he there?

Torrent stepped backwards, but tripped over a wrench. He fell to the ground, and the moment he landed the Ro-bot turned around to face him. He could see him properly now.

He had a humanoid face, but the back of his head shifted, like a helmet. It had the shape of a cobra’s head, the flaps serving as a shield from behind. His eyes weren’t normal- they were like… snake eyes.

“Uh!” Torrent didn’t know what to do. The Ro-bot, Snake Eyes unsheathed a sword, the blade glowing blue and pointed it at Torrent. 

“Human,” He hissed. “Where is it?”

“Wh-what?” Torrent was terrified.

Snake Eyes hissed like a, well, snake, and with his other arm unsheathed another sword, still having two free arms. He pointed them at Torrent, staring down at him.

“I said, Human, Where is the Source?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The Source! Where is it, human?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! some action huhu. hope you guys like it!

“I- what?” 

“The Source! Where is it, human?!” 

Torrent had absolutely no idea what the Snake Robot was talking about. He was far more concerned about the swords pointed at him though; he didn’t mind being called a human. That was the least of his concerns. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 

“Humans are so useless!” The Ro-bot hissed and swung the swords.

Torrent rolled to the side just in time before it sliced him in half. Quickly he scrambled off the floor and ran for it, making way towards the exit. The doors were slightly ajar.   
On his way out he quickly pulled the fire alarm, the red lights flashing while the sirens were blaring.

Quickly and without looking back Torrent squeezed just enough through the doors, quickly getting outside just before Snake Eyes got him.

“Ah!” He recoiled as the four set of hands grabbed on the doors and started to pull them open. 

He jumped back, running before Snake Eyes broke the doors and dashed out, swinging the swords in the air. “I’ll bring down this damn building! Where is it!”

On his rampage, he brought down trees and lamp posts, trash cans and everything he could find.   
The emergency system on the campus was blaring, the security system activating. Automated weapons and guns came out of the metallic floor that made the trail of the campus, all aimed at Snake Eyes. 

“How primitive!” He laughed, just as he sliced the guns even before they had a chance to fire at him. “Humans are so funny.”

Oh, fuck.

Security guards were coming out, but these were _human_ security guards. If the guns couldn’t stop him, the humans had absolutely no chance.

“No, stop! Stop!” He screamed at them, hoping for them to stop. They raised their guns at Snake eyes and started to shoot.

It, of course, did nothing. The bullets bounced off him, uselessly while he rushed with his swords raised in the air. 

“You need to stop! You can’t-” 

“Torrent?!”

He turned his head, and several of the students that were living close by were running away, evacuating. Ariel had a bag on her back, in the process of evacuation but was standing there staring at him.

“Ariel! You need to leave! You need to-” 

He was interrupted by the sound of a scream, one of Snake Eyes’ sword stabbing one of the guards in the shoulder. 

They had to leave. Torrent ran towards Ariel and grabbed her by the arm and pulled, running away from the chaos- his main priority was to protect her. 

“Torrent, who is that?! What is going on?!” She yelled while being dragged away.

“I don’t know, I-” He was running towards the evacuation area, but something was thrown in their way. One of the light poles was ripped out of the ground and thrown at them, blocking the road. 

“Oh, God!” Ariel gasped. 

He turned and saw Snake Eyes coming their way. 

“Come on come on come on!” He yelled, still dragging her away from everything. 

Police officers poured inside the campus, with more weapons than the guards. But Torrent didn’t know if that would be enough. 

The first building he came across he tried to enter, but the entire campus was on lockdown. 

“Fuck-” 

“Give me one second-” Ariel pulled the wires on the paneling, changing the cables, pulling the screen up and writing some commands. The lock was disabled, and they were able to enter.

“Wait- lock it down again.”

She nodded and quickly did so from the inside, locking the door. 

He looked around the room they were in, and he realized they were in the dining room of the campus. All the lights were on, illuminating everything inside. He could hear the chaos happening outside.

“Torrent, what’s happening?! Why is he attacking? Who is he?!”

“I- I don’t know. I was going back to the lab and he was already there. He was- he was searching for something. He asked me where the Source was.”

“What? The Source? What is he talking about?”

“I don’t know! He just told me that he was looking for the Source.”

“I, I don’t-” Ariel was thinking. “I don’t know what he could be talking about- scientific source? Energy source? Bibliography source?”

“There is nothing here that goes by that name?”

“No, I don’t- I don’t think there is. I never.. I never heard of it.” 

He could hear things getting bad outside. “Well- he doesn’t seem to care, he wants it.”

“Okay, okay, we need to leave the campus. There are police officers coming, and- and we can leave. If we go through the north trail, then we can-”

Something burst through the doors, the glass flying everywhere. Snake Eyes was standing there, approaching them once more. 

“More humans. Do you have the Source?!” He screamed.

“Ah!” Ariel covered her face from the shrapnel. Torrent grabbed her and started running.

“Stop running!” Snake Eyes kicked one of the chairs, sending it flying straight towards them.

It hit Torrent on the back. He fell, crashing against the floor and skidding. Ariel fell too, scrambling to get away but Snake Eyes was already looming over her. 

“No no no no no-” She tried to get away but Snake Eyes grabbed her by the arm and lifted her, being at eye level. She was shaking, engulfed in fear.

“Where is the Source?! One of you stupid humans must know!” 

“Ariel!” Torrent screamed. He could do nothing to help her. 

Quickly, he got up and ran towards the wall, ripping the fire extinguisher from its place. He had one shot. 

“I don’t know! I don’t know what you’re talking about!” She yelled. 

“No one here knows anything! You stupid-”

Torrent threw the fire extinguisher at him. By instinct, Snake Eyes dropped Ariel on the floor and sliced the extinguisher.  
It exploded, white foam spreading instantly over everywhere. 

Quickly he ran over the fog, grabbing Ariel and running away. There was an exit on the kitchen, if he remembered right. 

“Are you okay?!” He asked Ariel while they ran away.

“Y-yes! Are you?!”

“Yeah! Come on!” 

They managed to get to the kitchen. Torrent had to slam the door to open it, but they were outside again. Sirens were blaring, and emergency services were approaching outside.

“You need to leave! There is an evacuation shuttle. You need to get there immediately!” One of the police officers yelled at them. 

“He wants something called Source- we don’t know what he is talking about!” Ariel informed, before they ran out of there. 

It didn’t take long for Snake Eyes to burst out of the building. Without looking back, they made their way to the main building that lead to the exit where the shuttles were.

“Do you think they will be able to stop him?!” Ariel asked, out of breath as they approached the door quickly.

“No- they won’t. I don’t think they want.” They slipped inside, and there were far more people were panicked and waiting to get into the outside. In an organized way they were entering the evacuation shuttles, getting out of the main building into the outside.

“We need to leave as soon as possible. He… he is looking for humans. He thinks humans know where whatever he is looking for is. All of these people…”

“But we’re safe, no? We just need to leave and-”

Cue the doors bursting open. Torrent was right in his speculation of Snake Eyes trying to find humans. Blood was smeared over him, and he looked down to the humans.

“Surely one of you knows what I’m looking for,” He swung his sword at Ariel.

Torrent placed himself between them, raising his arm. The sword sliced clean above the elbow, his left arm falling to the floor uselessly. 

“Torrent!” Ariel screamed, but he just shoved her back. Everybody was screaming and pushing to the exit.

“Not human?” Snake Eyes looked perplexed, until he understood. “Same difference.”

He shoved Torrent aside, making him crash against the wall uselessly. Snake Eyes was quickly approaching Ariel and the others. And even if they got to the shuttles, he would chase them. And when they couldn’t tell him whatever he wanted them to tell him, he would kill them all.

He had to do something.

Torrent jumped quickly onto his back, wrapping his one arm around the head. The cobra head was too wide for him to properly wrap himself around, but he jerked him back. 

“What?! Get off!” Snake Eyes swung his swords, but Torrent pulled back as much as he could, making him slice the ceiling instead.

Rubble fell from above, blocking the hallway that was between the both of them and the humans. 

“Torrent!” He could hear from the other side. “Torrent!”

“Ariel- Leave!” He shouted before Snake Eyes slammed his back on the wall, crushing him with his own body.

He let go of him, sliding down. Snake Eyes was looking down at him, furious with his swords in his hands. 

“Oh, you are little pest, aren’t you?”

Torrent scrambled to get away as the Ro-bot was following him, kicking things at his direction and swinging his swords. 

He had to do something, but he couldn’t defend himself. The only thing he could do was to escape. 

Torrent kept running, remembering that the Chemistry Laboratory was attached to the Main Building. He made his way there, all the meanwhile Snake Eyes kept following and throwing everything he could find. 

“Shit!” He hissed when a trashcan was thrown inches from his head. Torrent knocked everything he could find, attempting to slow his path. 

He barely made it into the chemistry laboratory, closing the door behind him and dragging a desk across it. It would probably not help at all. The only way he could think of stopping Snake Eyes was to-

Was to kill him. 

He made his mind. Torrent ran over to one of the tables, and grabbed the gas line tube. With all his strength he ripped it open, letting the gas leak out. He went to another set of tables and ripped open it’s gas line, too. That, and the chemicals that were put away should be enough. He just needed something to make a spark. 

Something slammed against the doors. He didn’t have much time, and rushed over the office supplies. It was difficult to dig around it with one hand, but just as he found what he was looking for Snake Eyes burst into the room.

“There you, you little shit.” He hissed as he walked over Torrent. By now the room should be full of gas. 

“Where is it?” He screamed, swords raised in the air. 

Torrent raised his arm, showing the little lighter that he had in his hand.

“Right here,” He smiled, just as he pulled his finger down and let out a spark. 

 

\---

 

The last thing he remembered was the sound. It was horrible, it dug through his circuits and scrambled with his code. Everything was bright and painful. He never in his life felt pain, but he knew this was it. 

He saw the vials of chemicals explode and add into the chaos, and then everything was darkness.

Torrent opened his eyes just a little. Smoke and fire rose towards the sky, and he could see sparks coming from somewhere.   
He laid in the rubble, and when he looked down he saw his chest, wide open and ripped apart, and he could see the gentle light of his Energy Core illuminate the darkness. He couldn’t move, his arms gone and legs barely there. 

He was going to die, he thought. He wondered what it was to die for a robot. He would figure it out, soon. Sirens and voices came from the background but it was okay. As long as Ariel and the others were safe, then he didn’t mind dying.

He wished he could have seen more of life but, this, this was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cant believe Torrent is fucking dead


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’ll help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ETC ETC MORE MORE lore etc and two very important characters show up !

Memories of his past replayed in his head. Insignificant things, but still important to him. Domestic things, helping clean the laboratory around, doing tests with Ariel, things that didn’t seem to important and yet they were dear to him. 

He wasn’t dead, right? Torrent didn’t know if robots could really “die”, but he figured that he was still alive. Or is this what death was like?

If he had enough consciousness to wonder about wherever he was dead or not, he probably wasn’t dead. 

Before he opened his eyes, he could feel all his systems were online. But he felt… different. Lighter? Less-er? Something about him definitely was different, but he couldn’t figure out what, and he couldn’t even figure out if it was his software or not. Maybe it was his hardware. He should probably open his eyes. 

He did so. He stared at the white ceiling, and there were machines around him.  
Okay, he survived. The last thing he remembered was laying, half dead after causing a huge explosion. Ariel probably found him and fixed him, in another laboratory. Ariel should be around, somewhere.

“Oh thank goodness, you’re awake.”

That wasn't Ariel’s voice, but it was familiar. Torrent turned his head to find-

A Ro-bot?

“When we found you, you were really damaged- half dead. But they were able to fix you- I am so glad you’re okay.”

Wait, Torrent recognized him. It was the Ro-bot from the videos, with fluffy brown hair, blue eyes and a red mark below his left eye. He looked… bigger than he expected. And he was sitting next to him, for some reason. Things weren’t clicking right in Torrent’s head. 

“Uh-” He croaked. “Hello?”

“I’m sorry- you must be pretty surprised and also shaken. The explosion was… very strong. No offense, but everybody here is very surprised you managed to survive that. Whoever made the explosion, they wanted to kill you.”

“I did it-” He said, softly, suddenly regretting he said it.

“Uh,” The Ro-bot cocked his head. “You what?”

“I-” He started to remember. “I did it, yeah. There was a Ro-bot there, and he wanted to kill everyone so… I exploded the laboratory.” He closed his eyes. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“There were no other Ro-bots at the area when we got there. How did he look like?”

Torrent raised his arms to explain. “Like a Snake, he had snake h-”

He realized his arms looked… different. They used to be a different color, now they were white and the fingers, instead of metal like before, were black silicone as well as his palm. The back of his hands were metal though, but it felt more like a human prosthetic rather than the arms he had before.

“...Uh,” He stared at his arms for a while. 

“Oh, I-” The Ro-bot was interrupted by Torrent sitting up from the metal slab he was on, finally examining himself. 

Apart from his arms, there didn’t seem to be anything different below his torso. His calves looked patched up, feet were the same- if anything, he was scorched. His body used to be scratchless but there were lots of scorch marks and cuts. 

But his chest-

There was a hole in his chest, before. After the explosion. He remembered it, he stared at his open core. That was pretty shitty. But now, the hole was covered by sheets of metal and patches to protect his core. It was very sloppy and last minute. He brought a hand against it, and the fingers clumsily crashed against the surface- he wasn’t used to his new arms.

“Let me bring the medic-”

The Ro-bot was about to leave, but another Ro-bot entered the room before the first one exited- Torrent was getting overwhelmed. They were so _big_ , but the medic was a bit shorter than video-one. 

“Good afternoon, it seems you’re awake.”

“I- yeah. Yeah, I am awake, obviously.” He normally wouldn’t be so harsh, but he wasn’t having a good day. “What happened to me? Why is my chest covered in… this?”

“Okay, first things first. Do you know what happened to you?” The medic said. The other Ro-bot rubbed the back of his neck.

“I was… about to tell him. I’m going to do that now.”

Torrent felt like he was having a nightmare. 

“We got reports of a Ro-bot rampaging near a human university, so we tried to get there as fast as we could. We saw a huge explosion and got there shortly and we found you in horrible condition. But, alive.” 

“I am incredibly surprised you are alive,” The medic said. “You’re a man-bot- normally your cores aren’t as developed to sustain such a huge amount of abuse. It seems humans are getting better with their technology. Nevertheless, your arms were ruined. Couldn’t reconstruct them, so I had to use spare ones we had- you should be thankful they match.”

Torrent stared at his arms for a second.

“Your body sustained huge damage but we were able to buff it out. Your core was exposed however. So we used several sheets of reinforced material to protect it.”

“You-” He traced the metal with his hands. “This feels very… rustic.”

“Listen- I know it looks shitty, but it _works_ \- we don’t exactly have your blueprints to make your survival aesthetically pleasing. Be lucky you’re somehow alive.”

They then talked amongst themselves, but honestly Torrent was too out of it, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Wait-” He interrupted them. “Where is Ariel?”

“...Who?” The medic said.

“Ariel, my creator- she is a human. She was- what happened to the humans there? Are they okay? Are they here?”

The medic looked at the other Ro-bot, who bit his lip. “When we got there, there were no humans that we saw. Human rescue services already got there to tend to those who either were hurt or died, and they pretty much told us to leave that to us so we… did. And took you here.”

“But- where is here? Where I am?” 

“You surely have heard of the Taskforce, right?”

Torrent just stared at them, silently. It was too much information in such a short time, and he didn’t know what to do with it. 

“Uh, can you leave us alone for a bit…?” The Ro-bot told the medic. The medic nodded, and left the room. 

Torrent saw him approach him and sit down next to where he was, twiddling with his fingers. “I’m sorry- This is too much for you, right? I should have-”

“No- no. I…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know what to think. This is a bit too much.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I- sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“My name is Rom.” He outstretched his hand. “What’s yours?”

“Torrent, I-” He clumsily tried to grasp Rom’s hand, but his hands were still not used to their new size. Rom grasped it firmly, and his hand was huge compared to his. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, unfortunately it is in bad circumstances.” He tried to smile, but it was awkward.

“I need to- I need to find Ariel. My creator. I need to find out if she is okay.” He tried to get up, but Rom put a hand in his shoulder and gently put him in place.

“Sorry, but you have to be in observation for a while. Doctor’s rules.”

“This-” He tried to not freak out. “Okay. But I need to figure out if she is okay. She is- she is my creator. I have to know.”

“Paperclip maybe can help you- maybe she knows how to try to contact humans to see if Ariel is okay.”

“Okay I-”

The door opened once more. Torrent expected the medic to be back, but it was someone else. A Ro-bot, too, a tall blonde one. “Hey, you done Rom?”

“Actually-”

“Oh, he is awake. Good, we can get the data recollection thing quick.” She burst into the room, not too gracefully and pulled out a datapad, ready to record. “Alright, we need to know who attacked you so you have to answer some questions. Question one, who-”

“Spacebar, remember what I told you about tact?” Rom pointed out. 

She rolled her eyes, looked down at Torrent for the first time and gave a very, very fake smile. “Hello. I’m glad you survived. So you can tell us who attacked you.”

“I don’t know who attacked the University. He… had a long face. And have you seen cobras? It had like, the back of the head of a cobra.”

Both Rom and Spacebar (that was her name, apparently) stared at him confused.

“What’s a Cobra?” She asked.

“It’s a type of snake.”

“What’s… a snake?” Rom was now the one that asked.

“An… animal?” 

“I have never seen an animal,” Spacebar mused.

“No- don’t you remember the… the cat we found a while ago? It was long, black and white and had that really weird strong tail and it hung from a tree,” Rom remembered.

Torrent was sure he was talking about a possum, but okay. 

“Whatever, describe the animal. Or the Ro-bot, whichever.” 

“The Ro-bot, he was… the back of his head was big. Like so,” He raised his arms to emulate the Cobra-like helmet Snake Eyes had. “It was an armor, but shaped like the back of a cobra’s head- which is very wide. He had two arms, though.”

“Cobra arms?” she asked.

“Cobras and snakes don’t have arms. So this, uh, it was different from that. Just four arms.” 

“I don’t think I’ve seen or heard of such a distinct design. One of our ranks would have spotted him immediately, due to the head and four arms. He doesn’t seem to be a known criminal.” She was recording, Torrent didn’t notice until now. “Did he randomly decide to attack a human settlement? This wasn’t a town or anything like that, but humans lived there. Why?”

“It’s- an university. Humans use it to study and sometimes the students live there. He… I think he was looking for something, though. I found him going through the laboratory, searching for something and he told me about it. He demanded me to give it to him.”

Both Rom and Spacebar listened at him intently. “What was he looking for with the humans?”

“I don’t know. I mean- I know but I don’t know what he was _referring_ to. He said something about the ‘Source’. He wanted it, and was sure we had it.”

“I’m guessing that you didn’t, though,” Spacebar continued.

“No. I don’t think so. He never really explained what he wanted, just started to rampage around to get it. For what it’s worth, we didn’t have anything called the Source.” 

“This is so odd- what could humans have that he wanted?” Spacebar tapped her chin. “I wonder if he will try to attack more humans. Did he say what he wanted it for?”

“No, just that he wanted it.”

“Well, a shame. We will keep a look on this Ro-bot, to see if he attacks again. He must have survived that huge explosion because we didn’t find him in the corpses.”

“The-” Torrent choked out. “The corpses?”

“Oh yeah. We helped humans clean up there- well, the cleaning crew did. Found a bunch of human corpses and stuff. All organic.”

“Spacebar! Tact, please!” Rom basically yelled.

“What?” She sneered. 

“I… My creator. She was there, I don’t-”

“Oh, you think she died?” She asked.

Torrent covered his mouth with his hands. What if she died? What if Ariel was dead? What if the explosion he made actually killed her? What if Snake Eyes survived and then killed her? He knew the guards. He knew the people that he killed. Dead. They were _dead_.

Rom and Spacebar were saying something but Torrent was paying zero attention to it. The thought of Ariel being dead was so consuming he was afraid his internal system would shut down. 

“I, I need to-” He needed to get out of there, right now. He stood up and got off the table, but his legs gave up immediately and he fell to the floor, bringing everything down with him.

“Hey! Watch it!” Spacebar yelled, stepping back trying to get away from the chaos. 

Rom stood up, pushing Spacebar out of the room. “I need you to leave right now.”

“But you have to-” He ignored her, just pushed out of the room and closed the door. 

Torrent felt so pathetic, lying on the floor as his systems were just barely responding. Everything seemed to crash down, and he didn’t know what to do. 

“Do you want me to leave?” Rom asked him, and it took some seconds for him to register the question.

“No,” he decided. “No, please… don’t leave me alone. I don’t want to be alone.”

“Do you want me to help?”

Torrent tried to stand up, but his legs weren’t responding. He felt so much shame, but he nodded.

Quickly, and without pity, Rom helped him by lifting him from the arms, gently helping him into the surface he was on. 

“I’m sorry about her. She is…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She is horrible.” 

“Do you think she died? Ariel?” He looked at him.

When Torrent saw him in videos, he thought that maybe the guy was just acting. Those kind of people who act being good. He knew about those kind of persons. He knew a couple of them, in the university- teachers that pretended they were good until they were behind closed doors. But, Rom was looking at him in such a way Torrent knew, whatever he said, he truly believed it. 

“I don’t know.” He said.

“I need to find out. I want to find out.” 

“I’ll help you.” 

Torrent stared up at him, silent for a few seconds. “You will?”

Rom held his hand, tightly. “I’ll help you find Ariel.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m sorry I freaked out earlier today. It was… too much, you know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Torrent starts to come to terms with what is going on.
> 
>  
> 
> HI! I updated this thing!! Some more lore and a bit of information about what is going on. lore, exposition- etc etc!!

“I’m sorry I freaked out earlier today. It was… too much, you know?”

It didn’t take long before Torrent gained functionality of all his limbs. Everything still felt a little bit awkward, especially his arms. He would have to get used to them. Rom stayed with him, which made Torrent felt a little guilty- he sure had some better places to be.

“Hey, it’s okay. I know all of this must be a shock to you.” Rom awkwardly played with his fingers. For such a big guy, he sure looked very… vulnerable, sometimes. “I’m sorry about what Spacebar said. It was extremely out of line. A lot of people here have no manners and tact.”

“Yeah she was..” Torrent bit his lip. “She sucked.”

“I know it doesn’t justify it, but a lot of these people haven’t had experience with humans, or their creators. So they don’t really understand what you must be going through.”

“But… you must have creators, right? I mean, you were created by other Ro-bots. But you have contact with them, no?”

Rom shrugged. “I-”

He was interrupted, by the medic once more. He was holding a metallic box, and he gave it to Torrent. 

“What is this?”

“It’s protection. While we were able to patch your chest up, it still is better if you covered it up. This is made with special material- serves as an armor. We have these to protect Man-bots with.” The medic crossed his arms. “You don’t have much going in terms of protection or an external armor.”

“I… well, I am not finished yet.”

The medic cocked his head. “That explains why your design is so simple. What was your intended purpose?”

“Rescue and first aid.”

“Makes sense,” he pointed a finger at Torrent. “No wonder you survived. Rescue and search must be sturdy to survive anything. I have never seen one so small, however.” 

“The human aesthetic is different,” Rom commented. “It’s why almost all man-bots are, er, short.”

Torrent was going to say something about that. Technically, in human terms, he was tall. But he did feel very short at the moment. 

“Anyways, use this. I am sure you don’t want everyone to see that you used to have a gaping hole in your chest. Your systems are good to go, if there is a glitch come right away.”

Torrent nodded back to the medic, who nodded in response and left the room. Torrent finally opened the box, pulling out the vest out of it. It was made of a special material, thick but light. He put it on, effectively covering up the patch work in his chest.

“Are you feeling okay?” Rom asked.

“Yeah I’m… still a little bit stressed. But better.” He should get going. “I need to find Ariel.”

“Let me take you to the Archivists. The main archivist, Paperclip- she is the one that gives out alerts of when there are disasters happening in human areas. She may be able to help, or one of her helpers.”

“Yes, please.”

Exiting the room, Torrent realized the medical wing was bigger than he thought. It had several other rooms, with more Ro-bots walking around. They all glanced at him for few seconds before returning to their duties. 

He followed closely behind Rom while they exited the medical wing, exiting to a hall. There were even more Ro-bots in the hall, just going on with their own business.   
It then hit Torrent- he had never really met other Ro-bots before. Nor Man-bots. His entire life he has been surrounded by humans. 

The realization made him a little uncomfortable, and it didn’t help that they were all bigger than him. He felt like an ant surrounded by giants. They quickly traversed the hallway, until they came across a huge pair of doors. 

“This is your first time here, right?” Rom said, as the doors opened automatically.

“No, never. I never left the University.” 

The doors opened fully, and Rom stepped out. Torrent followed immediately.

“Welcome to the Taskforce Headquarters.”

The main lobby was _huge_. There were many Ro-bots moving around, dragging things, carrying conversations, just occupied on their own. There were several doors leading to different sections, people constantly coming in and out from them. The room was so busy Torrent could barely register it in its entirety. He could see various booths with more Ro-bots, tending to other Ro-bots or writing things in computers. 

He noticed Rom was already headed off, and Torrent had to walk quickly to catch up with him. He truly felt so small, every person around him a giant. He had to squeeze between people to avoid getting lost, trying to keep up his pace. 

“Sorry- excuse me, pardon me-” It was hard to not crash with everyone, specially since they didn’t seem to actually notice him. 

After some mortifying minutes of walking around and avoiding people they finally stopped in front of another door. It opened automatically as they approached, and Torrent was glad to see that the hallway was empty. 

“This place is… big,” Torrent remarked. 

“Yeah, it fits. We are quite big.”

“Yeah, ‘quite’,” Torrent sighed. He felt so extremely out of place. 

“Sorry- there are far too many people currently. Things have been… chaotic. Too many attacks, too many people coming here to report things, you know. It has been a busy couple of months.”

They walked a little more, before reaching another set of doors. They entered the room, and it was very silent and dark. The lights of the screens illuminated the room gently, and there were huge rows of servers in the very back, behind glass doors. 

A metallic division separated the room from the archivists and the rest. It was at shoulder height for Torrent, but it wasn’t that tall for Rom (everything here was sized for Ro-bots, it seemed). Torrent was still fixated by the servers when Rom spoke.

“Paperclip, good day- are you busy?”

Torrent looked at the main Archivist. She was surrounded by holoscreens floating around her. She was busy typing in a holographic keyboard that also surrounded her, her eyes jumping back and forth from screens, the images changing and information revealing itself as she typed more and more. She was fixated in her work, not paying attention as Rom called out for her. 

“Paperclip?” He called again, but she was far too fixated in her work. He chuckled, and coughed a little, finally catching her attention.

“Hey. What. Sorry. Oh!” She quickly gasped, retreating her hands as she looked around, out of her trance. She spotted Rom and Torrent, and smiled wide. Her hair was green and curled around her shoulders. Torrent also could easily tell she wasn’t a Ro-bot, but a Man-bot like him. “Oh, my gosh. I’m so sorry”

“No, no, it’s okay, we interrupted you. Are you too busy?”

“No, I just finished up this thing,” She waved her arms and the screens disappeared, except for one which she moved aside with her fingers, so she could look at them. “Can I help you with something?”

“We are looking for a person, a human.” 

She raised her eyebrows, slightly confused. “That’s new.”

“Torrent is the one that needs your help,” He pointed at him, and he nodded.

“Yes- hello. I was in an accident in an University, and I want to know if a human came out of it alive or not.” 

“Oh! Are you the one they brought in from the explosion? I am glad you’re okay! I was the one to actually give the alert when we got reports of the University getting attacked. I’m glad they got you out. I’ll see if I can find out about your human. Can you describe them?”

“Her name is Ariel Morgan. She is twenty-two, black, she is 1.60 meters tall, curly black hair, brown eyes. She is a student in the University of Montenegro- the University that got attacked.”

“Okay,” She pulled out another screen and enlarged it, the first one still running in the background. She started typing on her holographic keyboard, without even looking down. “The incident is still new, so I don’t believe there will be much information, but let’s see what we can find.”

Another two screens popped up around her, while she continued to type. Her eyes were focused on the screens, as she waited for information to come through. “Captain Rom, you were deployed to this mission, right?”

Captain?

“Yes- unfortunately wasn’t really able to get there before the explosion. Maybe if we had arrived earlier-”

“Hey- no reason to beat yourself up for the past, Captain.” Captain? 

Something at Rom’s hip beeped. He grabbed the communicator and answered it. 

“Hello? Uh, give me one second,” He covered it with his hand and leaned down a little. “I’m sorry, i’ll be right back in five minutes. I need to answer this.”

“It’s- uh, It’s okay. Don’t worry.” Torrent replied back. 

Rom smiled and exited the room. 

Torrent went back to look at the rapid movement of the screens, information downloading and showing so fast he couldn’t keep up. Only the soft humming of the servers could be heard as he tried to just look at the screens.

“You look a little bit on edge.”

His train of thought was interrupted by Paperclip. She was still typing and looking at him, the screens surrounding her. 

“Oh- sorry. I startled you. I mean, it makes sense you are on edge, considering everything that happened.”

“I’m… normally better. Calmer. It just…” He pressed his hand against his face. “It has been a very long day.”

“I’m sorry. This must be really stressful for you.”

Torrent looked again at the screens. “Can… I make you a personal question?”

“Go ahead.”

“I noticed you are… are not, er,”

“A Ro-bot? Yeah, yeah…” she sighed. “If you pay attention here for a while, Man-bots like me do the ‘menial’ tasks.”

Torrent looked at the amount of screens, the alerts and everything Paperclip had to take care of. “This doesn’t look too menial for me.”

“It is, for them. It’s… paperwork. Me and my team are the ones that inform them when there is a new attack or there is something important going on, but no one cares.” She bit her lip. “The Ro-bots are the ones that go out in the field, fix things… the ones that risk their lives. But they… they can be awful, too.”

Torrent thought of how cold Spacebar was to him. 

“But… Rom is okay,” he said mostly to himself.

“Oh, Captain Rom is one of the few legitimately nice people around here.”

“Uh… Captain?” he chuckled, nervously.

“Yeah, he is the Captain of his own team! You didn’t know? He is one of the highest ranks in here. He is a Captain now, but there is a lot of chatter about him being the next to become High Commander! The leader of the entire Taskforce!”

Torrent suddenly felt very awkward. He had been there for few hours but he still knew that it was a big deal. 

Rom entered the room shortly after, smiling. “Sorry, I had to take that. Has there been any luck?”

“The search just ended.” Paperclip looked at the screens surrounding her. “Unfortunately it seems that it is too early to be able to tell the identities of the survivors and those who perished. There are many news articles about them, some depicting different information about the incident. I was able to look through the reports from hospitals and human police forces but it is still too early- they don’t even have the names of the survivors and victims.”

She tapped her fingers on her lip. “They don’t have information of what happened, have no idea. Are we going to communicate what we know…?”

“The Commander says no. We won’t be sharing information to the humans as to what happened.” Rom seemed slightly upset, crossing his arms. “We haven’t been sharing any information with the humans, but it’s what High Command ordered.”

Rom eyes shot wide open, and fixed his posture immediately. “Wait- does that mean we don’t know if Ariel is alive?”

Paperclip frowned and shrugged. “It is still too early. There is no information coming, because not even the humans have it. There are medical records of emergency patients they received that may be linked to the incident, but they don’t even know their identities. Until they know, we can’t know.”

Torrent rubbed his face with his palm, frustrated. He still didn’t know what happened to Ariel, and it just made him more anxious as to what could have happened to her. 

“She… is my creator. I need to know if she is okay.” 

“Paperclip, can you keep an eye on all the information coming from the incident until something comes up? I’m sorry if it’s too much to ask, but we need to know if Ariel is alright.” Rom interjected. Torrent would have been touched but he was being eaten away by worry.

“I can absolutely do that. Don’t worry. We will keep an eye on anything new. If her name comes up, or if there is any new relevant information, I will contact you immediately, Captain.” She moved the screens to be at her side, where she would keep an eye on them. 

“But I can’t stay. I need to find her, I need to-” 

“You need some fresh air. Come on,” Rom gently grabbed Torrent by the shoulder directing him to the exit. 

So many things were going through his head. Ariel. The explosion. The Taskforce. His core. Ariel. Ariel.   
He had to find her. He had to make sure she was alright. 

“Torrent, the Taskforce doesn’t only protect humans. It is our duty to protect everyone who has been attacked by Ro-bots with horrible ideals and morals. You can stay here until you find Ariel’s whereabouts- it would be no issue. It’s what this place was built for, after all.”

“I’m sorry, this is too much to swallow. I’m…” He looked down at his feet. “I don’t know what to do.”

He felt like he should go out there and look for her, but he wouldn’t be allowed to by authorities- it isn’t like he could go bursting to the hospitals asking for Ariel. He could make everything worse. Unfortunately, it seemed staying put for a while and wait for news to come was the only choice he had, as horrible as that was. 

“Is… it okay if I stay here for a while? I don’t know where else to go. The University… it was all I had.” He covered his mouth with his hand. “And it’s gone.”

“It’s completely okay! It’s the reason we are here. Come on, follow me.”

Torrent did so, still taking in the gravity of the situation and just how big everything was. It was outstanding- he never expected the actual building to be so… huge. 

“I’m sorry I’m keeping you from your work,” Torrent almost whispered. “You’re probably busy and I-”

“No, no- it is our duty and responsibility to protect and help! It is a pleasure.”

“So you do it out of duty?”

Torrent suddenly realized that was a very dick thing to say. He was very, very stressed out. “Shit, I’m sorry, I mean-”

“No, no. I understand. While it is a duty, I don’t think it would be right to just leave you to your luck here, considering everything that happened.” 

“Thank you. That’s… so nice of you.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled. 

The building was a labyrinth of hallways and rooms. Normally, he would be paying attention to his surroundings, but he was just so exhausted of everything. He just wanted to power down for a while. He didn’t even realize when they arrived to where he would be staying. 

“Here,” Rom motioned. Torrent raised his head, pulled out of his thoughts.

A small lobby, that lead to several rooms. The lobby had a couch, some magazines and other random things. It looked awfully empty, but strangely cozy, like an empty apartment. 

“There aren’t… many man-bots here, so luckily you can have one of the private rooms. Which is good, because there are some rooms that are… well, for far more people. But you can have your privacy here.”

“It looks different form the rest of the building.”

“Well- the bots that have stayed here have tried to make it look more natural and cozy for the next residents.” That explains the random human things. 

“Yeah it’s… yeah.”

“Listen, Torrent- if there is anything you need, don’t doubt to call, alright? Can I help you with something else?”

Torrent shook his head. “No, this is… thank you so much. I just need to be alone for a while.”

“Okay. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Rom waved farewell and left. 

Now, Torrent was alone. He looked around the room, inspecting the random things. There were some books, old magazines, random objects. He would have paid more attention to them, but his mind was somewhere else. After a while he just went to the closest rooms. 

Inside it was small. There was a recharge slab where he could power down, and there were also some sheets. Random furniture such as a small chair, a fake plant, and some paintings. It looked like a very cheap attempt of a Ro-bot to make it look more human and comfortable. 

It just made him feel weird. 

Torrent laid down on the slab, and crossed his arms. 

The University he had lived on his entire life was gone. The one person he cared about, his creator Ariel was missing and he didn’t know if she was even alive. He was unfinished. Rom and his team had rescued him and now he was in the Taskforce.

His entire world had changed. He never interacted with other bots- let alone Ro-bots. He felt so insignificant and small in comparison to all of them. What was he going to do?

Torrent rubbed his face. He would wait. There was nothing else he could do. He would wait for information on Ariel to appear, and he would make his move. He would reunite with her. She had to be alive, after all. Right?

Torrent didn’t even want to think the possibility of her being dead. 

He reached to the ground for the sheets, and wrapped himself in them. He didn’t need it. He felt no temperature, but it… made him feel better. Reminded him of home, of the shitty couch in the laboratory, how the old springs dug into his body. 

Torrent closed his eyes and powered down. Hopefully tomorrow would be different.

\---

His sleep was full of memories of Ariel, and memories of the attack.

When Torrent woke up, he felt slightly better. He rather be somewhere else, but he wasn’t freaking out as much now.   
There was a plan. He would wait for Paperclip’s help, then would meet Ariel once again. After all, Ariel was okay. He knew she was okay.

The first hours of the day he stayed in the lobby of his own wing, reading magazines, inspecting the fake plants and trying to read the books. He grew antsy after a while, however. He couldn’t stay just _there_ for the rest of his stay.

Bravely, he decided to venture and explore the headquarters. It would give him something to distract himself with, and he had to face the fact that he was _very_ sheltered. He had only known the University, he couldn’t just stay in one room locked up. 

Was there a map? He felt like there should be a map of the place. But in case there wasn’t, Torrent grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pen before he exited the Wing. He drew a little box representing where he started, along with a S representing Start. 

He picked a random direction and started to walk. 

Torrent mapped out every turn he took. There were rooms that lead to more hallways, it was like dungeon of nothing but hallways. Torrent was getting pretty frustrated by all the lines he drew on his makeshift map, he continued walking until he stumbled upon an opening that lead to outside. 

He walked over there and quickly realized it wasn’t exactly outside. It was an indoor garden- several flowers, trees, bushes… It was beautiful, but it also looked very organized in a strange way- the flowers growing on the ground were organized by color, the trees were organized by type… it was quite a strange sight. Beautiful, though. 

Torrent had never seen so many flowers before. 

He carefully went over a row of yellow roses. He kneeled, and very carefully tried to touch one of them, mindful of the fact he was still not used to his new hands.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Torrent retreated his hands quickly, without having touched the rose. He looked up to see the Ro-bot from the previous day, Spacebar, looking down at him.

He looked at her carefully. She was taller than him, obviously. Her armor was red and her arms were bigger than normal. She had long, long blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail. Her hair reached her mid back, and her blue eyes just stared down at him. She had a red rectangular marking under her left eye- just like Rom. 

“Oh- I’m sorry, I was just looking at-”

“You could damage them.” She crossed her arms. “Though, to be honest, they’re for show, more than anything.”

Torrent stood up, and could gauge her height. She was a bit shorter than Rom, but still taller than Torrent. Ro-bots just were… bigger. 

“You’re the man-bot from yesterday, right? The one that got attacked by the… cobra? Animal?” She squinted her eyes, trying to remember. “Anyways, that’s you, right?”

“I… yeah.”

“Found your creator yet?”

“No, I… there is still not much information about it. I’m still waiting for good news, though.”

Torrent waited for her to acknowledge how rude she was the previous day, but she said nothing. She just stared up at Torrent. 

“You look kinda odd. Very… unfinished.”

“I- yeah. I’m not finished. Ariel- my creator, she was going to finish me during the next few weeks but… well. We got interrupted.”

“What was going to be your function?”

“First aid, search and rescue…”

“Kind of small for search and rescue, don’t you think?” 

Torrent felt a little bit offended at that. “Small holes, small places bigger bots can’t fit into. Not everything is strength.”

A little bit rude, but he was getting annoyed at how forward she was being.

She shrugged. “Bigger is always better. Just ask everyone around here.” Spacebar smiled. 

It made him feel a little bit uncomfortable. “Why do you have so many flowers here? Is it for research?”

Spacebar shrugged, and grabbed a leaf from one of the trees. “Something about making this place more aesthetically pleasing. This place was pretty barren, before that. The building is full with more warmth, too. It used to be far… more sterile.” 

Really? The parts Torrent had been walked through still seemed very sterile to him. “That’s… nice. This place is nice.”

“Whatever,” she sighed. She pressed her fingers together against the leaf, and it slowly burnt. She let the burning leaf fall into the ground softly, before she step on it to prevent a fire. “I’m not in tune with nature. It’s the opposite of what we are.”

Torrent just stared at the ground, then back at Spacebar and her fingers. She could feel his confusion, and she opened her hand for a small fire to lit on her palm. 

“Let’s say it’s my talent.” 

He then realized that the big bumps on her arms were gas ignitors- she created her own fire. That was… impressive. 

“Anyways, Rom likes these flowers, so don’t go messing them up.”

She left before he could say anything else. He felt better now that she was gone, if he had to be honest. Sighing, he went back to examining the flowers, very careful to not hurt them.

Ariel told him, before the University was attacked that she would take him to look at flowers. Pretty flowers. 

These flowers were pretty, but his smile faltered at the circumstances.

He stood up, staring at them and at the horizon. 

What was he going to do?


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torrent receives big news

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter!! and with new developments !!! going slow but steady !!!! hope y'all like it

Waiting was eternal.

Well, that’s how it felt anyways. Only four days have passed but there were no news on Ariel, or anything else. He hadn’t seen Rom, either, but he expected that. The guy was a Captain, he probably had better things to do than to hang out with him.   
He had explored as much as he could and was allowed to, mapping the facility himself with his little piece of paper and a pen. Soon enough someone actually offered him a map, which he took and added his own little notes into.

From the map he could see that the Taskforce was bigger than he thought. There were about four floors in total, but he was told that the only one he was allowed to wander around was the first floor. All the important and interesting things were on the other floors, however.  
Having explored most of what was allowed to him, Torrent was officially bored out of his mind. And boredom led to anxiety. Lots, lots of anxiety. 

He was sitting on one of the tables of the rest area. It was basically a lounge for everyone, but he was about the only Man-bot in the place. He was starting to get used to it, but he still felt so… out of place with everybody else.  
Torrent mostly was people-watching, just examining how many people have been walking around, their designs, their expressions, etcetera. He used to people-watch with Ariel before, at the University. 

He hoped she was okay. 

“Hello!” 

Torrent was snapped out of his thoughts by Paperclip, who just sat down in the couch in front of him. Everything around them was designed for Ro-bots, so she looked so small on the couch. Torrent probably looked ridiculous, as well. Screens were all around her and moved along with her frame, but she wasn’t even looking at them. She pushed the one in front of her to the side, to see Torrent better.

“Hey, good day.” He looked at the screens around her. “Shouldn’t you be… paying attention?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I am. You could say I am sort of ‘in tune’ with the screens. That’s why I was built- As an all-seer of operations in an organization- I can see whatever is on the screens, even if I don’t ‘see’ them.”

Torrent nodded, and looked at the screens. “Were you built for the Taskforce?”

“Oh, no, no. Only Ro-bots create Ro-bots themselves for the Taskforce. I was made by humans. I used to work on a huge hospital. But, well. You know. The attacks started and…”

“Oh. Oh, Paperclip, I’m so sorry, I-”

“Everybody lived,” she clarified. “I made sure everybody lived. I saw everything, was able to get everyone in safety before they attacked. But, they still did attack and destroyed everything. Thanks to me everybody survived but…” She shrugged. “They didn’t trust me anymore.”

“Because you’re mechanical?”

“Yes. I mean, I _understand_. I can’t be mad at them. So I decided to leave and came here, and offered my services and they said yes. Which is great!” She beamed up.

Torrent nodded and thought a little. “Aren’t you sad that they… well, distrusted you?”

She nodded softly. “I mean, yeah. Of course. But… again, I understand. But I don’t mind- I can help a lot of people here! Before I came here they had almost no organization. Now I control the alerts, the information- it’s pretty cool.”   
Torrent smiled. He felt better with Paperclip around, she seemed to be more down-to-earth than anyone else. 

“Oh- I’m sorry, I hogged the conversation. I just wanted to update you that they will be releasing the list of survivors later today, most likely. They haven’t talked about it publicly, but I was able to get into some files that were left unsecured and I got information that they will post it tonight. So, that’s good news! I have a feeling everything will be alright!”

Torrent felt a wave of happiness accompanied by a wave of extreme anxiety. 

“Torrent? You alright? You look a little… worried.”

“Yes, I-” He shook his head lightly. “I’m anxious. A little bit. I am very anxious.”

“Oh. I should probably haven’t said that, then…” she covered her mouth, worried. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no. It’s okay, I just am very anxious. This is… this is very anxiety-inducing. I just want to know if she is okay.” He tiredly rubbed his eyes. “I just need to occupy myself, that’s it.”

Paperclip leaned forward, putting her chin on her hands and looking at Torrent, mostly trying to figure out how to help. 

 

“Hello!” A voice called out for them. Both of them turned their head to find the source.

“Oh, Captain Rom! Are you back from your mission?” Paperclip smiled. 

“Please, just call me Rom. And yes, just literally came back.” Rom smiled at both of them, tired. “There was another attack not too far from here, but by the time we got there they were gone. At least no one got hurt and there was minimal material damage, so that’s good.”

He looked over to Torrent, and smiled awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I left without even telling you, It was an emergency, so when I was told yesterday-”

“Rom, the mission started three days ago.” Paperclip interrupted.

“Oh.” He stayed silent for several seconds. “I am not good at keeping track of time.”

“Have you slept?” Torrent asked, worried.

“I can go about a week without powering down. That’s probably why I’m bad at keeping track of time.” He shrugged. “Anyways, I’m even more sorry now.”

“Oh it’s… it’s okay. I just figured you were busy. I was right.” Torrent waved his hand, trying to comfort Rom.

Honestly, he didn’t even really _expect_ Rom to even care. He surely had more important things to do, and most of the Ro-bots there didn’t care about Torrent at all. The fact that Rom even remembered him and explained himself was a surprise to him. 

“Paperclip, have there been any news regarding Ariel?” Rom asked.

“Not yet, no. But I was able to get information that the list of survivors will be released later tonight.” She smiled, but it was awkward. “It… is anxiety inducing.”

“Oh. Is there a way I can help?” Rom asked, concerned.

“Oh, you’re probably too busy, I don’t want to be a burden.” Torrent already had enough with feeling out of place, he didn’t want Rom to resent him in case he had better things to do.

“Don’t worry about that! I’m not really busy right now.” He blinked. “I’m not, right? There are no other missions, Paperclip?”

She moved one of the screens that surrounded her in front of Rom, and she pointed at it. “Not at the moment, no. You just came back from a mission though so I wouldn’t expect the High Commander to schedule for another one in a day or two. You did report the end of your mission to him, right?”

“Yes, yes, of course.” He smiled at Torrent. “I’m not busy, if that’s what you were worried about. I mean, If you want my company, that’s all.”

“No, I do! I mean,” He said that rather too loudly. “I’ve been kind of a bummer lately, and I am very anxious. I just need to occupy myself?”

“Do you want company?”

“I… Yes. That would be very nice, actually.” He really didn’t want to be alone at the moment. He would get too tangled on his own thoughts. 

“Oh, I have to go though.” Paperclip stood up while she dragged one of the screens in front of her face. About two other screens popped out around her.

“Something the matter?” Rom asked, concerned.

“No, no. Just some information and... “ She spaced out, touching the screens and words and graphs appearing on them. “Routine…” She bit her lip and continued to touch the screens. “...Sorry, have to go…” She whispered and walked away without looking at them, too fixated on her screens.

Rom proceeded to sit down in the empty space she left behind, the couch actually looking like a normal couch when he used it. He leaned forward a little. “I’m sorry I kind of left you alone. Have you had a chance to explore the building?”

“I… yeah. Only the first floor, though. I’m not allowed to venture more, because I’m not part of the organization.”

“Hopefully no one was rude to you.”

Torrent blinked. He recalled Spacebar, who was a jerk, but apart from that and some people staring at him, he really didn’t interact with anyone. 

“I didn’t really talk much with anyone. Why, are people rude around here?”

“People here are not very empathic. That’s why I was a bit worried.” 

Torrent rubbed his hands together, trying to think of something to say. 

“Hey, Paperclip said referred to you as Captain…?”

“Yeah, that’s my rank. I have my own team which I lead on missions. We are focused on physical contact, though unfortunately it seems lately we haven’t been able to get there in time.”

“Physical contact as in, actually fighting?”  
“Yeah, we’re ready for battle. There are distinct teams that are focused on different approaches. I’m part of the fighting division.” He scratched his head. “Well. The idea is to fight those who are a threat to humanity.”

“That’s very impressive!” Torrent said. “You can actually defend yourselves against threats. I was supposed to be a rescue robot but… well. You see how that went.” 

“Hey, when you find Ariel she can finish building you, and you can be a rescue robot!”

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Torrent smiled. “I’ve always wanted to help people. Not just because that’s why I was created but because… well, you know. It would be nice.”

“And you will! Everyone always needs more rescuers. More people to save them.”

“Well,” Torrent leaned back on his massive couch. “I feel like you do far more rescuing and saving than what I would do, though. You are the ones that actually fight the ones that do harm.”

“Yeah but, I feel like actually saving people and rescuing is different from just fighting. Fighting is… just that. Rescuing someone- you need to be gentle, better. I mean, that’s how I see it!” 

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t know about either of those things,” Torrent chuckles awkwardly, but Rom bit his lip a little. 

The Ro-bot stood up all of sudden, a smile on his face. “Come on, let’s go”

“W-where?”

He shrugged, while still smiling. “I don’t know, somewhere. I know you already explored this place by yourself but, maybe I can give a little bit of flavor to it!”

Torrent stared at him for few seconds, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds nice.” 

He stood up, and both of them walked out of the room. 

 

Even though he had a map and he had mapped what he could reach himself, Rom provided colorful commentary and his actual explanations of what room was for what. 

“The Taskforce was created by Ro-bots who wished to protect humanity and Man-bots from Ro-bots who think we are better than them. While some members can join, most of the people here were built with the specific directive of working for the Taskforce, like me.”

“You were built for the Taskforce?” Rom repeated, slightly surprised.

“Yes. I was to be just a normal soldier, but, well, climbing through ranks, and now I am a Captain.”

“Do you know your creators?”

Rom shrugged. “Not really. I mean. I was created by a team of about five Ro-bots. I never really met them. When I came online, I was in a laboratory, and some voices in a room told me what my purpose was. That’s when the people from the Taskforce came to pick me over, and I started here.”

“That’s so… cold. That you don’t know your own creators.” Torrent was surprised by just how mechanical all of that seemed. Like he was just a product, and not an actual person.

“A lot of Ro-bots pride themselves in not being emotional like humans. I suppose the ones that created me had that same pride. It doesn’t matter, I am accomplishing my task very well.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” 

Torrent was still put off by it. It kind of explained why so many people there were so uncharismatic and just generally kind of rude. Spacebar came to mind. 

They arrived to the small garden Torrent had stumbled upon the other day. The flowers were beautiful, and so was everything around, but it was still kind of funny to see how well organized everything was.

“This place is beautiful,” Torrent commented.

“Yeah, Some of us think it’s better if we added some nature and, you know, organic life around here. I feel this place is a little bit too mechanical at times.” Rom smiled. “Though, I’m sure you have seen far better sights than this. More flowers and trees, right?”

“Er, not really.” Torrent sat on the floor, looking at some of the flowers and touching them with his fingers, careful. “I actually never left the University. I was going to, but well… it got attacked.”

“You never left?”

“No. While Ariel was building me we both agreed to make sure i was in good condition before properly going out. I mean- the University was big and it had its own small park and flora. But I never really left.” 

“I’m sorry.” Rom sat next to him. Even sitting down, the man towered over him and it made Torrent feel a little bit intimidated.   
“It’s okay, bad luck I suppose. Should have left before, missed my chance.” He looked around him. “Well, I guess you can count this as leaving the University, no?”

“You went from one building to another, though. That’s a little bit… claustrophobic.” Rom was even more careful than Torrent with the flowers. His fingers were big, and metallic. He probably was too afraid of killing them. “Even though I go out on missions I do see the outside world. I’m sorry you haven’t been able to.”

“I will be able to, though. Just… maybe not this week. Depends on what happens in the future.”

“Hey, it’ll be alright.” He patted Torrent gently on the back, friendly. Comforting. “You’ll be reunited with Ariel and you can go back to normal. Maybe one day you can come back and help us with some rescuing, eh? We always need people that know how to save lives.”

Now it was Torrent’s turn to chuckle. “Heh, maybe. I think that is still a long time from now, though. But that sounds like a plan.”

This was nice. Rom was nice. Sitting on the ground and looking at the very-carefully-organized flowers was nice. His fingers were new, and was still adapting to them, but he was very careful. His carefulness was out of inexperience. Rom’s carefulness was out of fear of destroying it. 

He couldn’t sympathize. Even before, his hands were made gentle and precise. He wasn’t afraid of destroying. To see someone like Rom, who so far had been nothing but nice and gentle, be afraid of destroying something was very strange. Poignant. He wondered how Rom felt about it. What other Ro-bots thought about him. After all, like he said, Ro-bots pride themselves in being nothing like humans, and that included being empathetic and gentle.

So many things were going through his head. There was a world of difference between Torrent and humans, and he felt there was a universe of difference between Torrent and Ro-bots. It was strange. He couldn’t quite clearly explain it.

They spent the next hour just sitting around and looking at the flowers. Torrent didn’t know much about them, but he recognize some that were at his University. He explained a little about them, and about the bugs that were on the flowers. Rom said that the red flowers were his favorite. He pointed at the roses.

 

The door opened, and both turned to see Paperclip standing in front of them, without screens surrounding her. It was strange, Torrent had never seen her without any kind of screen. She was rubbing her hands anxiously.

“Paperclip? What’s wrong?” Rom asked.

“The information came through.” 

Before they could speak, she pulled a single screen. With her fingers, she made it big and touched something at one corner, so now the screen was facing Torrent and Rom and the information wasn’t backwards. 

It all happened too fast. Torrent leaped to his feet and ran towards the screens, ready to search for Ariel’s name on the list of survivors. 

“Her name is not there.” Paperclip stated.

Torrent stared at the list of names on the screen. He blinked, and then stared at Paperclip through the blue hue of the screen. “What?”

“She… I searched. Double checked. Her name is not there. Ariel Morgan is not on the list of survivors.”

Torrent just stared at her. The lights of the screen was illuminating both their faces. The sun as starting to set. 

“There is a list of deceased.” She continues. “Her name isn’t there, either.”

Torrent just stared at her blankly without saying a thing. 

“There are some people who are missing. Or… unrecognizable, after what- after what the Ro-bot did to them. We don’t know who is missing, though. Her name is nowhere so,” she looked at the ground. “So she must be missing. Maybe dead.”

 

“Torrent?”

He stared at her, and then at the screen at all the names on the screen. None of them Ariel’s. Nowhere to be found. He continued to stare for several minutes until he brought his hand to touch the screen. His hand went through it, making the image fizzle a little but unchanging. 

The sun set, and the sky changed from it’s vibrant colors to a deep dark as stars started to appear on the sky.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was difficult to tell the passage of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more plot more plot etc etc etc things start happening!

It was difficult to tell the passage of time.

Unless you were outside, there was no natural light inside the Taskforce Headquarters. Everything was flooded with artificial white light, twenty four seven, all week, all month. No clocks- why would they need it? They were mechanical beings, that didn’t need to sleep at specific hours. Some of them could work for a week straight until they needed to power down. Clocks were not necessary for beings that could work all day, every hour without needing to rest.

It was artificial. The way the lights hum on a hallway in the middle of the night. The way a computer hisses as it stays on every day for the rest of its functional life. 

It sickened him.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Torrent had spent the last days (Weeks?) holed in the room he was provided, under the blanket.   
He pondered a lot. Thought a lot. Memories flashed in his head when he powered off, memories of the promises of what he would be, of what they would do. Things that wouldn’t happen anymore.

Ariel was gone.

She wasn’t dead, but she was gone. Missing. No one knew where she was. The chance of her being alive was slim.

She once told him that sometimes it was important to cling to that one last hope. Because sometimes, it’s what you needed to survive.  
But she was a human. Humans hoped. Humans aren’t made with objectives in mind, they are born and they themselves carve their own paths.

Was it foolish for a machine to hope?

 

Torrent was still wrapped around the blanket, making a cocoon out of it. He had been still for hours, probably, contemplating everything: What should he do now, what will happen to him, if there was a chance Ariel was alive- these thoughts drowned everything else, and it took him a long while to make sense of everything.

Ariel was gone. There was a chance she was dead. But, there was also a chance she was _not_ dead.

For now he would cling to that small chance. It may be the only thing keeping his software from completely shutting down, and he just didn’t want to completely give up.  
Now what?

If she was alive, he should try to go look after her. But, where to start? He could go back to the city where they lived. That probably was a good idea, to go back to the start and try to find her. Talk to people. Just search for her.

Torrent moved a little, rolling on the slab he called a bed but he went a little too far, falling off and crashing against the floor with a soft thud, still covered in blankets.

If Ariel was missing, would she be looking for him? Maybe she was hurt. Maybe she was in a hospital and they hadn’t recognized her. Maybe she just completely escaped the area before police came and that’s why her name was nowhere to be found.   
If her name wasn’t in the list of the deceased and victims, then she wasn’t in a hospital. Where could she be?

Torrent was still covered on his blanket while on the floor. He probably looked like a pile of nothing but blankets. He moved around a little, but didn’t really want to get up the floor at the moment. 

There were so many possibilities that came with believing she was alive. What should he do?   
Maybe he should start by asking for help.

Ugh. He didn’t want to ask for more help. Maybe he could talk to Paperclip, she was pretty nice and was created by humans, too. He still had no idea what even he was going to do, but he needed to start somewhere.

Begrudgingly, he stood up, leaving the blanket on the floor. It would be the first time he left his room and the area for a while, but he felt he had enough misery. Now, with that one last shred of hope that Ariel was okay, Torrent felt way better. 

As he walked through the hallways, he realized he forgot his map, and couldn’t remember where Paperclip’s office was. After all, when he was there it was while he was in a bad state of mind.   
He also noticed that the hallways were strangely busy, with Ro-bots almost jogging from place to place rather than calmly walking. 

He didn’t put much thought on it, they were probably having just a busy day. 

Soon enough through enough wandering, he reached the main Lobby. It was full of people, but they were all focusing on something on the center. Torrent couldn’t see anything, with everyone being way taller than he was.   
He could see the glow of Paperclip’s screens however, so she was there too. Whatever it was that was happening, seemed important.

“Hey,” he asked the Ro-bot next to him. His hair was black and had bright yellow eyes. He lacked the mark Spacebar and Rom had below his left eye, however. “What’s happening?”

“Oh, Rom’s team finally caught someone from the anti-human group.”

That caught Torrent’s interest very quickly. “Is- is he green? Does he have four arms?”

The Ro-bot looked at him and then stood on tip-toes, trying to take a good luck at the prisoner. “No, got only two arms, and is a yellow color.”

So, not Snake Eyes. 

He didn’t even know why he asked. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if it had been him. Maybe ask what he was looking for, that made him destroy the University?  
Whatever, it wasn’t important anyways.

“I’m new here- is it really a big deal? Don’t you, I mean, the Taskforce catch these guys all the time?”

“Not really. They have been getting better and more slippery. It has been the first guy that is captured in a long while- Captain Rom’s team was the one to caught him.”

“Oh!” He said, surprised. He wished he could see it, though. 

He tried to leave the area, but there were so many people he couldn’t move. He would have to wait until they all started to move. Which wasn’t too long, anyways. About ten minutes later everyone started to move, when they started to move the prisoner. 

People parted to make a path for them to pass, and they just passed next to Torrent.

Rom passed by, he didn’t notice Torrent (No wonder, Torrent is so short), and behind him walked the Ro-bot they had captured, handcuffed.  
His head was down, so Torrent couldn’t see his face. He was just as big as intimidating as everyone else. 

Behind him, another Ro-bot, but Torrent had to lift his head to see him. He was _huge_ , almost three meters tall. He towered every single one in the room and casted a shadow as he walked.   
Torrent was mesmerized. As the huge Ro-bot walked, he looked down at Torrent for one second as he passed by.

In that one second Torrent felt like an ant.

He didn’t address him, just continued to walk.

Behind him, more Ro-bots- but normal sized. Torrent supposed that they were Rom’s team. And, finally, Paperclip passed by with about twenty screens surrounding her and following behind. He made sure to see where they went to, and as soon as everyone started to scatter, he followed, curiosity getting the best of him.

Just as he entered the hallway they were in, he could see the Huge Ro-bot speaking with Rom about something, as the others continued to escort the captive away.  
Then, one huge hand pointed at his direction. 

Torrent froze and bit his lip. Rom looked at him, and nodded. 

“Hey, um, Torrent!” Rom smiled, awkwardly. “Could you come here for a minute…?”

He blinked, but did so. Both Rom and the Huge Ro-bot were looking at him as he made his way over there, and stood next to Rom. He had to lift his head to look at the tallest’s one face.

His eyes were bright yellow, and he had tattoos similar to Rom’s and Spacebar under both eyes. He couldn’t make out more of his features, he was so tall the lights above him were shadowing some of his face. 

“This is the, um, Man-made, Sir.” Rom scratched the back of his head. “He was rescued by my team some weeks ago, from the attack to the Human University.”

“Why is he still here? Have the medics not finished repairing you?” The Ro-bot spoke. His voice was deep, and terrifying. 

“Sir, there was space for him to stay here until he got back his bearings. He was waiting for news on his Creator, who was part of the attack.”

He never stopped looking at Torrent. 

“Are you looking for your human creator?”

“I- yes.” Torrent was able to say. “She… she is missing. There is no clear idea if she is alive or dead.”

“We haven’t had Man-made robots around here for a long time. Have you decided what to do?” 

“Um,” Torrent was feeling a little bit interrogated.

“My apologies- I have not presented myself.” He extended his hand to shake Torrent’s, and it was _huge_ , it engulfed his silicone hand very easily. “I am the High Commander of the Taskforce. I foresee everything that happens here. I am the leader of this organization. Everybody is under my commend.”

“Pleasure to meet you, sir,” Torrent greeted. “My name is Torrent. Um, I was built to be a rescue robot but we were attacked before my creator, Ariel, could finish building me.”

The High Commander cocked his head very slightly, clearly not interested. 

“Our organization is focused on saving Humans and Human-made robots from criminals who seek to harm your kind. Obviously, this also includes homing any Human-made robot in case of it being necessary.”

“I can stay here?” 

“If it is what you wish.”

Torrent was still not really sure what to do. The idea of just staying there, however, and not do anything wasn’t too appealing for him, however. 

“If you excuse me, I have matters to attend to. Captain Rom, you know what to do i regard to our captive. Get out all the information you can and report back to me.”

“Yes, sir.”

The High Commander nodded, and left. Torrent could still feel his presence even after leaving, and he couldn’t just get comfortable.

“Ah, sorry about that,” Rom smiled, awkwardly. “He can be a little bit too strict. Wanted to know why you were still here, considering the fact that the Mission was some weeks ago.”

“No, don’t worry, I understand.” He turned to look at the prisoner. “You caught one of them?”

“Yeah, it was difficult but we were able to. Hopefully we can get some more information from him. While some of these guys work independently on their own hatred, some are part of a larger group and I think he is part of it.” He scratched his chin. “Want to get information about them, but it’ll be tricky.”

“I won’t slow you down, then.” Torrent smiled.

“Oh, actually-” He raised his hand to stop Torrent from leaving. “I’m sorry about Ariel. And that uh. I didn’t do much to help you, lately. I don’t know how to deal with these things but, that’s no excuse.”

“Thanks. It has… it has been a weird couple of days.” 

“Do you know what you want to do? Like the High Commander said- you’re free to stay here as long as you want.”

“Well, I… I don’t think she is dead. I want to find her. I still think Ariel is alive, but I’m not sure where to start.” Torrent crossed his arms. 

“It’s good to keep up hope! There is no proof she is dead. Just remember that.” Rom looked at the other direction briefly. “I’m sorry, I need to go. If you need anything, be sure to hit me up, alright?”

“Yeah, sure! Good luck with the,” he pointed at the Ro-bot.

“Hah, yeah! Thanks.”

He left pretty quickly, catching up with the others. He saw Paperclip was going with them, surely to the interrogation room.   
So, his plan of at least trying to figure out what to do with Paperclip help was a no go, at least for a couple of hours. 

Torrent was suddenly shoved out of the way by a big hand. He almost fell to the ground, and he realized Spacebar was walking quickly towards them.

“Out of the way!” She yelled at him as she passed, more Ro-bots accompanying her. 

It seems everyone was on edge.

 

Everybody was busy, so Torrent occupied himself with trying to figure out what his next course of action should be.   
Where could Ariel have gone to, now that the University was destroyed? He tried to think about it.   
The university was her home. But it was gone, where was home for her now?

He had only lived at the University, but Ariel lived somewhere else. Now that he was going through his memories trying to think of any hint of some place, he recalled something Ariel had told him.

Before she went to the University, she had lived in her mother’s house. But that wasn’t near the University- that was in some other city. It was in Barkeley City. It was the only home she had, apart from the University. It was likely that she would be there.

He didn’t know how far he was from Barkeley city, however. He could figure something out to get there, or maybe ask for someone there for transportation. It was small, but Torrent now had something more to cling to. 

He was sitting in the lobby, people-watching. Some hours had passed since they brought the criminal, he wondered if they were still busy with it.   
Torrent decided to go and visit Paperclip. He would have asked someone else for transportation or a exact map of their location, but Paperclip was already familiar with all his troubles. 

In comparison to how busy the hallways were a couple of hours ago, now it seemed like they were rather empty. It was night time, he could tell by one of the sarce windows. Shouldn’t matter, this place was active twenty four seven. 

 

The hallways were quiet. The sound of his footsteps echoed around.   
Part of him was reminded of the empty hallways in the University. Sometimes he liked to walk out at night, the crickets chirping. The hallways were always lit, never resting.   
It was a familiar feeling.

What was not familiar was the sound of sirens blasting, and red lights blinking.   
An alarm of some kind had been activated, and it made Torrent stop on his tracks. He had no idea what to do, or what was happening. Was there a fire?

“Attention!” Paperclip’s voice blared through the intercoms. “Our Captive has escaped! I repeat- Our Captive has Escaped! Shoot to kill! If you cannot fight- seek shelter!”

Oh shit.

Torrent ran in the opposite direction while the sirens kept blaring. He didn’t even know where to run to, he still hadn’t properly memorized the building. 

The automatic doors he came through were closed, and they were flashing red. They must have blocked them to prevent the Ro-bot from escaping. But that meant Torrent wouldn’t be able to escape, either.  
Cursing, he turned around and tried to find some place where he could hide and wait for it to end. 

He ran towards an intersection of hallways, but as he approached he could hear the sound of bullets coming from one side.   
Shit. He went the opposite way, hoping to avoid whatever was happening. 

He turned a corner, and crashed face first into someone. He was immediately pushed off by something hissing hot.

“Get out of the way!” Spacebar screamed, ignoring Torrent presence and just running. Her hands were suddenly engulfed in fireballs, as she ran towards the direction of the fight. The sound of bullets drowned out everything else, and now he could hear the fireballs being thrown into the fight.

Torrent just scrambled off the floor and ran away. More Ro-bots ran towards the fight, while Torrent went the opposite direction.   
There was an actual room with a normal door which hadn’t been locked. 

Inside, there wasn’t much. It seemed like a big closet with gardening tools. There was a metallic desk on one side, with some books about gardening. They probably were close to one of the outside gardens.   
The lights were off, Torrent didn’t care to think why as he went over and crawled under the desk, and curled into himself and waited. 

He could hear footsteps outside, as well as yelling. He couldn’t hear the bullets, but the muffled words of those outside reached him.

“Where the hell did he go?!” Someone screamed. “He just disappeared!”

Torrent said nothing, still hiding. He bit his lip as he tried to keep calm and waiting for the situation to defuse.

 

Something heavy set on his shoulder. He turned his face around, to see the fugitive Ro-bot curled, barely fitting under the desk, smiling at him ear to ear.

“Hello”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i havent forgotten about this im just gay and lazy ok !!!!!! anyways more stuff happens

Torrent immediately jumped from under the desk, trying to get away from the Ro-bot. He didn’t get too far as the Ro-bot grabbed him by the ankle roughly, and yanked him towards him.

“Hello little bot!” He dragged him harshly towards himself, while Torrent frantically tried to crawl away. “Why don’t you come here?”

“No- Help!” He screamed while he was being yanked away. Just as the Ro-bot had dragged him close enough to tear him apart (or whatever he was going to do), Torrent stomped his foot on his face, catching him off guard for a second- enough time for him to scramble away. 

The Ro-bot stood to his full height, launching the desk in the air. It crashed harshly against the ground and broke in several pieces. Torrent quickly grabbed a pitchfork and pointed it at the Ro-bot, but he just laughed.

“You think you can defend yourself with that? Oh, how fu-”

The door opened harshly, and on the other side were Rom and the others. He turned on the lights, and suddenly the Ro-bot was in full view.

“Shit!” The Ro-bot flickered for a second, and he disappeared in thin air. 

“What?!” Torrent held the pitchfork close, trying to understand.

“Block the entrance! We-” Rom was roughly pushed out of the way by something invisible. The rest started to freak out, swinging their weapons in the air trying to catch the Ro-bot.

“Where is he?! Where the hell did he go?” Confused shouts came from the hallaway as they tried to locate him before he got away.

“How-” Thinking quick, Torrent let go of the pitchfork to grab one of the heavy sacks of dirt that were in the floor. 

He quickly made his way outside where everyone was looking around them, confused.

“Rom! Slice this!” He screamed, as he threw the sack of dirt in the air.

“I don’t understand?” Rom asked, but he did it anyways. With his sword, he sliced the sack in two.

It exploded into a cloud of dirt that stuck on every little surface around it. All the Ro-bots around them got covered in a thick layer of dirt, confused sounds echoed through the hallway.

“What are you doing you little freak?!” Spacebar yelled, hands steaming hot. 

“There!” Torrent pointed at the fleeing Ro-bot.

As he expected, the dirt had stuck on him too, rendering him visible. Rom’s face lighted up as he understood the purpose of the dirt.

“Oh, right!” He smiled wide and lunged forward. 

Rom attacked with his sword, but the Ro-bot kept barely dodging, dirt flying everywhere. The other Ro-bots tried to pile up to stop the prisoner, while Torrent tried to get out of the situation. Far too small of a place- too dangerous if he got caught up in the brawl.

He was covered in dirt, leaving dirty footprints in his wake. 

“Get him!” A voice called. At first Torrent thought they were referring to him, but quickly realized the Ro-bot had slipped away from the brawl and was running towards him. 

“Down!” Rom yelled. Torrent crouched down, allowing Rom to leap forward and slice.

Rom sliced the Ro-bot’s arm, and sliced part of his torso. He would live, but the shock of being hit brought him down, giving the others enough time to capture him once more. 

Torrent stared at the scene, circuits pumping with adrenaline. Everybody was covered in dirt, it looked like they had been playing outside. 

“Hey,” Rom offered his hand to Torrent, who accepted it, standing up. “You’re okay?”

“Yeah just… a little bit rattled up, you know?” He laughed. “Oh. Sorry about the dirt.” 

“No, it was really smart! I wouldn’t have figured that out.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Um, I have to take care of… this right now. I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”

“It’s... “ Torrent was going to say how it wasn’t an issue but it was actually pretty scary. “It’s alright. Thanks for saving me back there.”

“Hey,” Spacebar interjected, not even looking at Torrent. She was also covered from head to toe with dirt. “Wounds are superficial, you just took off his arm. Going to take him to the interrogation room now.”

“Shouldn’t we be taking him to the infirmary?” Rom asked.

“Superficial wounds. He won’t die. Orders from higher up, effective immediately. Then we can get cleaned up.”

She left. Rom dragged his hand down his face, making clean tracks on his dirt-covered face. “Right. I’m sorry, I have to go now.”

“Y-yeah, bye.”

Rom and the other Ro-bots left, taking with them the fugitive. Now, Torrent was alone once more, but now covered with dirt. He should probably do something about that.

\---

“Isn’t there like… an easier way to do this?” 

They were standing in one of the gardens. Paperclip was holding a hose, and there was a lineup of other Ro-bots next to Torrent. They weren’t needed for the interrogation, so they all needed to get cleaned up. 

“This is just quicker!” She was holding the hose steady, trying to contain a smile. “Come on, boys- line up!”

She turned on the hose and proceeded to spray them down.

While it was quite embarrassing, it was effective. All the grime and dirt was being washed off. After several minutes of getting sprayed with water, Paperclip was all done cleaning them up. 

“See? That wasn’t so difficult, right?” She laughed, letting go of the hose. “Oh, you should stay inside while you dry, though. Don’t want another mess on the hallway. Already had to send some people to clean up the dirt from earlier.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks,” Torrent sighed while he squeezed his hair to get rid of the excess water. 

Paperclip laughed and went back inside, leaving Torrent alone with the other soaked Ro-bots.

“Hey, you threw the sack of dirt on the hallway, right?” One of them asked. He was tall, blond and with a blue armor. 

“Ah, yeah. I mean, he was… invisible. It was the best idea I had.”

“No, no. It was pretty smart. Wouldn’t have thought of that.” 

“Me neither!” Said the other. He was about as tall as the other, but his hair was black and had a different design. Both were similar, but different. 

“We had no idea he could turn invisible. No wonder he slipped away so easily. At least the Boss knows what to deal with.”

“You’re part of his team?” The smaller robot asked, still dripping wet. He didn’t remember seeing the other two before, but he was pretty preoccupied with not dying. 

“Yeah! We’re part of his crew. Helped him caught that guy. Name is Isosceles.” The blond one extended one wet hand, which Torrent shook.

“And I’m Hexagon!” The other one greeted as well using Torrent’s other hand, both Ro-bots shaking his hands at the same time.

“You’re the ‘bot from the University, right? The one that exploded and got rescued?” Isosceles asked, still shaking Torrent’s hand.

“I- yes! That was me. My name is Torrent.” 

They finally stopped shaking his hands. “Sorry about what happened to your home, too. Heard it got really destroyed.” Hexagon scratched his chin. “That guy, and this guy we captured are probably from the same group.”

“Huh? Why do you say so?” Torrent asked, curiously.

“We caught him trying to infiltrate a human research facility. Wasn’t able to destroy it or anything, but he must have been searching for something. Witnesses mentioned something about looking for a Source. Rom mentioned, your snake guy was looking for the same thing?”

The Source. That was definitely what Snake Eyes was looking for- him and this new guy must be connected in some way or another. 

“Hey, man-bot!” A voice called from inside. Torrent turned around, to see Spacebar looking at him from inside. She was still dirty, but at least not as dirty as before. She looked at him weirdly, surely because he was still soaking wet but ignored it. “High command wants to talk to you.”

“I-” He was confused. “Me?”

“Do you see another man-bot around? Yes, you. Come on, you can’t keep him waiting.”

“Okay,” He turned around to wave goodbye to Isosceles and Hexagon. “Nice to meet you.”

“See you later small-bot!” They waved, while water still dripped off them.

 

The combination of the dirt left behind by Spacebar, and the water that Torrent was dripping left muddy footprints inside the building. He felt sorry for the people that would have to clean it up.   
He wanted to ask Spacebar why they wanted to speak to _him_ , but she was so stern and quick on her steps Torrent was, honestly, slightly intimidated.

 

“Um, why does the Commander want to speak to me?” He finally asked.

“Don’t know.” 

They finally reached a door, and stepped inside. Around were other Ro-bots, along them Rom who still was covered in dirt. Soon enough, the Commander entered the room and stared at them, puzzled.

“Why are you covered in dirt?” 

“We used a sack of dirt to locate the invisible fugitive, sir.” Rom answered. “It… made a bit of a mess. Haven’t had the chance to clean up.”

“And why are you soaking wet?” He asked Torrent.

“I… got dirty, too. And then got hosed down.”

“...Okay.”

No further comment, okay.

“You wanted to speak with me, sir?” The aura of the room felt heavy.

“Yes. You commented, when your University was attacked- the attacker was seeking something, is that right?”

“Yes. He kept asking me about something called… The Source, I think. But- I don’t know what he was talking about. Ever heard of anything like it before.”

“Are you sure that you don’t know what it is?” The Commander pressed on.

“No- I mean. I have never heard anyone mention it, or talk about anything called the Source. He didn’t really explain what he was talking about, either.”

“Chrome- our fugitive, mentioned the Source as well. Witnesses at the place he attacked confirm that he was searching for something called the Source.” Rom interjected. “These two have to be connected in some way. They were looking for the same thing in different places, in human settlements.”

“Do the witnesses know anything about the Source?” the Commander asked.

“No, sir. They also don’t know what it is that they’re talking about.”

“So they’re attacking human facilities, searching for something called the Source. We don’t know what it is. We don’t know what they want it for. We only know that humans must have it.” 

“That’s ridiculous,” Spacebar scoffed. “What could the humans possibly have, that these Ro-bots want? They hate humans. They wouldn’t be looking for something made by them. These kind of people think that they can do everything better than humans- what could they have made that they want?”

“Whatever it is, we need to find it soon, before they get ahold of it. We don’t know what they want it from, but it cannot be good.” The Commander scratched his chin. “We know that they have been attacking large human research facilities. What we need to do is give protection to the largest human scientific facilities, and try to investigate what the Source is.

“Spacebar, Rom- Gather your teams. You will both be leaving tomorrow. I’ll gather the other Captains and inform them of their missions. For now, you two will be leaving for Berkeley facility. The scientific laboratory is one of the biggest ones in the country, and it may be a future target.”

Berkeley? That’s exactly where Torrent wanted to go. 

“Now, get cleaned up and ready. I’ll inform the others. You can leave.”

They all nodded, and left. Torrent was mostly dry now, but there were still drops of water running down his neck. Rom was still covered in dirt in comparison, but he didn’t seem to mind. They were other things going through his mind.

“Alright, lets get clean and get ready then!” Spacebar smiled excitedly, and walked away, leaving dirty footsteps.

“Actually, Rom, I wanted to ask you something?” Torrent asked, catching Rom’s attention. “You’re going to Berkeley?”

“Yeah. It seems that the Commander believes that the scientific institute there will be a target for whoever is looking for the Source.”

“Well, I was… planning on going to Berkeley, too. That’s where Ariel lived before, her entire life, before she went to the University and I was hoping maybe… she would be there.” He looked down at his feet. “It’s a long shot but, I figured it is worth something.”

“You want to come with us?” Rom guessed what he was going to ask.

“I mean. Yeah. I think? We would be going to the same place anyways, but if that’s not okay, then… I get it.” 

“I’m not actually sure. I’ll have to ask the Commander about it,” Rom sighed.

“Ask me what?” 

They turned around, and the Commander was standing right behind them. It startled Torrent a little, if he had to be honest- but Rom seemed used to it.

“Sir- Torrent was planning on going to Berkeley as well, to search for his creator. Was wondering if- if there wasn’t any issue if he came with us to Berkeley?”

The Commander looked down at Torrent for a second. “You do have experience with humans.”

 _And you don’t…?_ Torrent thought, puzzled. 

“You could be a good gap between the humans and us- Unfortunately, many of us have… no tact, when it comes to humans.”

Torrent’s mind went directly to Spacebar.

“You have my permission. Get everything you need ready, so you leave tomorrow.” 

“Yes, Commander.”

The huge Ro-bot nodded, and left. Rom smiled at Torrent. “You’ll come with us! That’ll be exciting!”

“Yeah! I’m glad. Thank you for doing me the favor.” 

Rom smiled and gave him a thumbs up. “Get ready! We’re leaving tomorrow morning. See you at Ten in the lobby, okay?”

“Yeah, sounds great!” He took a glance to the hallway and beyond. “Listen- I need to get ready and tell everybody the plans. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, of course! Thank you so much!”

Rom walked away, and waved at Torrent as he left.

Torrent smiled a little. Now that he had an actual plan and an actual idea of what to do, he felt better.  
Besides, Rom was a really nice guy. Traveling with him would, hopefully, be a good experience.

\---

“You’re leaving?”

Paperclip had several screens around them, but she pushed them away to talk to Torrent. He felt the need to tell her personally that he was leaving, specially after how much she helped him. Also, it would be rude to just leave.

“Yeah. I’m going to Berkeley- that’s where Ariel lived before she started working on the University. Maybe she went back there, after the place got destroyed.”

“Rom and Spacebar teams are going to go there and try to see if they can find the Source- are they bringing you for that?” Paperclip seemed to be always be aware of everything.

“Yes- well. Apparently I could be useful to deal with humans. As strange as that sounds?”

“Listen, many of these guys haven’t really talked to humans in a long time. You probably noticed some of them have absolutely zero manners. So it makes sense they want you to deal with the human relationships.” She placed her chin on her hands. “They need to learn how to be less rude, in my opinion.”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t been here for too long.”

“Trust me, its a problem,” she sighed. “But nevermind that! I’m glad you get to look for Ariel. Welcome to this organization too, I guess!”

“Huh?” Torrent looked at her, puzzled.

“Well, if High Command authorized you to get there, you’re officially part of the club!” she waved her hands, jazz hands style. “One of us! Yay!”

“You think so? I’m just hitching a ride. Anyways, I don’t think I’ll be seeing you in a while. Just wanted to say thank you, for all the help.”

“Oh man, don’t worry! I’m glad I was able to help. I’ll be missing you. Hopefully we can see each other later! I mean, in better circumstances, of course.”

“Yeah! Hopefully.” He smiled. 

 

He let her go back to work. He went back to get ready for the trip, but when he got back to his room he realized he actually really didn’t have anything with him. Instead, he got the room nice and tidy for whoever was that would use it next. It just seemed like the nice thing to do.

It was late at night, so he decided to sleep until morning, if only to pass the time. 

 

“Hey, Torrent.”

A very bright screen appeared in front of him in the middle of the night, interrupting his rest. Torrent fell off the bed surprised, the screen following him. He quickly realized, Paperclip was being projected in the screen. 

“Oh no, did I wake you up?”

“Paperclip, it’s-” he looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s three in the morning! You don’t sleep?”

“I only need rest about once a week! Pretty nifty. Do you really have to sleep every day?”

“No but, I’m used to it. Humans do and-” He was distracted. “Nevermind- what’s wrong? Also how can you project to me?”

“I can pretty much project my screens anywhere here. Magic fingers!” She wiggled her digits. “Anyways. High Command wants to speak to you, right now.”

“What, the Commander? What for?”

“Don’t know. He just told me to tell you to go to his office. You know where it is, right?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah. I think I do. Thanks, I’ll be there immediately.”

“Okay! Bye!”

With that, the screen disappeared. Torrent sighed and got up.   
He tried to figure out why the Commander wanted to speak to _him_ once more. He wasn’t too worried, however. 

He was so used to humans and their cycle, it was still weird to see Ro-bots up and about during the late hours of the night. By the time he got to the office, he carefully knocked on the door. It opened automatically, prompting Torrent to step inside.

“Um, you wanted to see me, Sir?”

Even if he hadn’t spent too much time there, he knew the Commander was the highest of ranks, the person everybody was respectful to. So, he would be respectful as well.

The office was big, but very… bare. He has been in offices before, but those belonged to humans. Pictures, plants, and decorations would litter the office. Even the most minimal had a decoration of sorts in the walls. Some sort of Artsy item. _Something_.

But the Commander’s office was completely bare. There was absolutely nothing in it, apart from a huge desk and a big, glowing screen behind it. There was a chair big enough for the Commander (who was a huge person), and nothing more. All the screens floated in the air, similar to Paperclip screens. The room was pitch black, only the screens illuminating the area with neon blue colors. 

“Torrent, is it?” he called, sitting behind his desk, his face pixelated through the screens. 

“Yes, sir.”

“Come closer.”

Torrent did so. There was nowhere to sit, so he stood, but even standing up the man eye level was taller than Torrent’s. 

“Rom asked you to come with to Berkeley. We as Ro-bots are not experienced with human communication. You’ll hopefully help in that regard.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve spent all my life with humans.”

“You say that like its a good thing.”

Torrent blinked. “Pardon?”

“My organization is very tightly run. Very well organized. Very efficient, because we have people who are _built_ for efficiency, do you understand?”

Torrent felt something deep down his circuits, something uncomfortable. “I-”

“I employ only the most qualified of people. That is why almost everyone is a Ro-bot.”

He felt his circuits curdle.

“You don’t trust me to be efficient?”

“I don’t trust you to be useful. Everyone here has proved their usefulness. Will you?”

“I-” He was at loss of words. “I will.”

“Good. Because I do not give second chances to useless assets. Is that clear?”

“Yes. Yes, sir.”

“Good. I’ll leave you to your business. You can leave now.”

Torrent did so, leaving in silence.   
An uncomfortable silence crawled up over him, making feel strange. Unsafe.

He recalled what Paperclip said, how everybody here thought they were better than them. 

He bit his lip.

Torrent worried if everybody was the same.


End file.
